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Great Barrier Reef, Australia
Easily the most well-known natural World Heritage Site in Australia, the Great Barrier Reef, which is the world’s most extensive coral reef ecosystem, was inscribed with UNESCO in 1981. The site covers approximately 348,000 square kilometers and includes a wide range of depths, comprising of shallow inshore, mid-shelf, and even extending into oceanic waters 2,000 meters deep. The Great Barrier Reef is actually made up of around 2,500 individual reefs, encompassing some 400 different species of coral, which makes for some of the most remarkable underwater scenery in the world. The massive size and varying depths allows for a wide array of ecological habitats and species, making the reef one of the most complex ecosystems on the planet.
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The Great Barrier Reef is unique in that no other World Heritage Site plays host to such a large biodiversity. UNESCO notes that the reef is “of enormous scientific and intrinsic importance, and it also contains a significant number of threatened species.” Despite its designation, however, the site is threated by a variety of pressures, both natural and man-made. Starfish outbreaks, cyclones, and other extreme weather events are all counted, as well as human tourism and coastal developments. Thankfully, due to the sites extensive size and varying ecosystems, the reef and its inhabitants retain a great capacity to recover from, and withstand, ongoing
The Reef was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1981, as the world’s most extensive coral reef ecosystem, meeting 4 of the 10 possible criteria.
The Great Barrier Reef is one of the seven wonders around the world. It is approximately 344,400 kilometers long. The Great Barrier Reef is home to many marine organisms. More than 1,500 species of fish live in the Great Barrier Reef. The coral that forms The Great Barrier Reef is made of polyps. Billions of living coral polyps are attached to the reef. The colour of these polyps range from blue, green, purple, red and yellow. As the largest living structure on the planet, the Great Barrier Reef is incredibly plentiful and various. Stretching 2300 kilometers, this natural icon is so large it can even be seen from outer space. While it’s known mostly for its large maze of colorful reefs, its intricate architecture also provides a home for a huge number of plants and creatures. There are multiple reasons as why the Great Barrier Reef is important, as it helps protect coastlines from the detrimental effects of waves and storms, provides habitats and protection for many marine organisms, help in nutrient recycling and is the source of nitrogen and other essential foods for marine food chains.
The Great Barrier Reef is known as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It is believed to be one of the most incredible places on this earth. This reef is the largest living organism on this planet and the only living thing on earth visible from space (2011). The warm waters of the southwest Pacific Ocean are the perfect environments to create the world's largest system of coral reefs. The Great Barrier Reef is in such pristine condition that it was listed by the World Heritage Trust as a protected site and is therefore, managed by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to ensure that its beauty is maintained for many travelers and sightseers (Edgar 2010). Due to the complexity of this natural phenomenon, human practices have led
The Great Barrier Reef is one of the wonders of the natural world. It was declared a World Heritage area in 1981 and added to the National Heritage List in 2007. Unfortunately, the Great Barrier Reef faces many threats. Pollution caused by direct or indirect human activities are major threats to Australian reefs. (source 1).
Tourism in Australia has evolved over the years and continues to increase to this day, however it is the effects that tourists have the ability to place on the Southern Great Barrier Reef which are potentially threatening for, not only the reef of lady Elliot Island, however, the corals surrounding it. “International visitations within Australia alone reached 3.9 million visitors within the first 7 months of 2014, which was an increase of approximately 9.5%, a number which continues to rise” (Tourism Australia, 2015). However, with this increasing number, comes possible damaging effects to the surrounding reefs of Lady Elliot Island, possibly leading to the excessive damage of corals due to activities and infrastructure requirements
Because the GBR is such a highly visited tourist attraction for snorkeling and diving, there has been a large number of human structures that have been built in natural areas. Every five years, the Australian government publishes an Outlook Report that examines the Great Barrier Reef’s health, pressures, and likely future. “The report is required under Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975 (section 54) and aims to provide a regular and reliable means of assessing reef health and management in an accountable and transparent way.” The report shows the actions that have been taken since 2009, including the focus on improving the quality of water that runs off the land. The increased freshwater run-off is in direct relation to the coastal development that has occurred since the major bleaching events have begun. The report released in 2009, states that the greatest risks to the Reef are still climate change, land-based runoff, coastal development, and some remaining impacts of fishing and illegal fishing and poaching. The report points out climate change as being the main cause of the destruction or bleaching of the reef (Department of Environment and Energy 2017). Most observers conclude that the climate change is a direct result of human
The Great Barrier Reef is one of the most complex natural ecosystems and was listed on the World Heritage List in 1981. It has a large biodiversity with a great variety of habitats and threatened species including over 400 species of corals, 4,000 species of molluscs, over 1,500 species of fish and a huge diversity of sponges, marine worms, anemones and crustaceans.
The Great Barrier Reef is the largest reef In the world being at 345, 000 square kilometres in size. This huge amount of reef is home to 1,500 species of fish, 30 species of whales and dolphins, and 133 species of sharks and rays (Act.greenpeace.org, 2018). Imagine you were one of these fish and your home was just dying off leaving you without food and having to move to different areas. We are the ones causing The Great Barrier Reef to die! Not only does the reef provide homes and food for all of these animals but it also provides the ocean and earth with large amounts of oxygen.
The Great Barrier Reef is one of the most beloved regions of the world but due to recent human activity in surrounding areas and subsequent sediment delivery, coral and seagrass habits within are being negatively impacted. Extending 2000km along the North-eastern Australian coast (Brodie et al., 2007), the Great Barrier Reef is a major source of income for Northern Australia and fuels the growth of local businesses. As industrialization in areas adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon have increased since European settlement (McCulloch et al., 2003), the need for more resources to compensate for human population has led to harmful land practices such as overstocking and deforestation for cattle grazing inland. These are causing a significant
The Great Barrier Reef is an iconic Australian landscape, listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1981, being the world’s largest living organism and being one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
The Great Barrier Reef is an oceanic/costal ecosystem off the coastline of Port Douglas, Australia. There are man costal systems that are significant to the role of the Reef including coral reefs, wetlands, and rainforests etc. The reef consists of many diverse corals and is a home for over 1,500 different species of fish. The reef is unique for many distinctive reasons; a reason that is unique is that it is acknowledged as one of the most imperative biological possessions. The Reef is a complex ecosystem with numerous organisms trusting on each other for nourishment and endurance. Broadly all collections of maritime plants and animals are extravagantly signified in the Reef. The animals range from dugongs
Among all the chaotic events that have been happening in 2016, this one has definitely stuck out to people. The Great Barrier Reef is one of the seven wonders of the world and the largest ecosystem to millions of species. The scientists declared that more than 30% has died at 25 million years old. The home of 1,625 species of fish, 3,000 types of mollusks and 30 different dolphins and whales has come to an end.
The great barrier reef is found on the north east coast of australia. The reef covers an area of over 348,000 square kilometres, this icon is so large it can even be seen from outer space. Practically the entire ecosystem became part of the World record in 1981. This wide depth range includes shallow inshore areas, mid-shelf and outer reefs, and beyond the continental shelf to oceanic waters over 2,000 metres deep(http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/154 ).
The Great Barrier Reef, one of the seven wonders of the natural world, is supposed to be larger than the Great Wall of China. The 1800-mile stretch of marine life is supposed to be the only living thing on Earth visible from space, with the world’s largest collection of corals, molluscs, rays, dolphins, and more than 1500 species of tropical fish. The reef should feature sea turtles and giant clams over 120 years old, humpback whales migrating from the Antarctic, and endangered species such as sea cows. However, just because it should doesn’t mean that it always will be. Its natural beauty has attracted tourists in the masses, but ironically, the treasured reefs are steadily perishing at their hands.
Have you ever heard of The Great Barrier Reef? The Great barrier reef is the biggest, most populated and oldest reef in the world. But today it is endanger and people hope it is healthy soon or the population off mammals in the water will drop.