The Great Barrier Reefs

The 2,300 km Great Barrier Reef is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the world's largest protected reef system.

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 under threat due to many human impacts and natural impacts. These impacts lead to other consequences that may harm our society as well. For example, if the Great Barrier Reef was to be damaged by pollution, tourism levels would decrease, which can lead to a drop in the economic stance of Australia. For these reasons, it is important to keep our ecosystems safe and protected. Some of the human impacts towards the Great Barrier Reef include:

The Great Barrier Reef always under constant threat due to pollution, human use, global warming, crown thorn starfish and more. The Australian Governments putting new systems in place to try and save the reef. They currently have the 2050 reef plan in action as a long-term sustainability strategy along with contributing millions of dollars to the Reef Trust.

Coral reefs are natural formations that host around twenty-five percent of the world’s marine species, however, these reefs are majorly threatened (“Air”). The Great Barrier Reef in particular is an important marine location, home to major marine diversity with over 3,000 reefs over 1,400 miles (“Great” World Book). The Great Barrier Reef is a limestone formation made of coral polyps and algae, and lays off the coast of Queensland, Australia. For many years, this reef has been exposed to several threats. The threats facing the Great Barrier Reef include pollution, invasive species, and climate change.

For over 25 million years, the Great Barrier Reef has lived off of the northeastern coast of Australia. The first human civilizations started around 5,000 years ago and industrialization of humans about 200 years ago (History of Humans, 2016). The human race’s timeline is just a small fraction in comparison to the reefs, but somehow humanity has managed completely derail mother nature in an incomprehensible amount of ways. Healthwise, the Great Barrier Reef is in the worst shape of its life and which just so happens to match ever so nicely with the rapid pandemic of global warming that has increased over the past couple of decades. The rise in air temperature is gradually increasing the ocean 's temperature as well which is causing colossal damage to Great Barrier Reef and reefs across the globe. If we do not take action immediately in reducing our planet’s rising temperature and ever increasing CO2, it will soon be too late to save this natural wonder as well as the countless organism that call it home.

The Great Barrier Reef is one ot the most popular places in the world to visit with over 2 million visitors each year. It is located along the coast of Australia and home to the world’s largest collection of corals. It also hold many species of animals as well as a few endangered species. But think, if we aren’t careful, in as soon as just fifty years, the reef could be dead, killing all life it contains along with it. Because the Great Barrier Reef is often misunderstood, it is importsnt to know the facts about the glory of the reef, its devestatingly decline, and ways we can help enhance it.

Coral reefs around the world are in danger. One of the causes is global warming, which has been increasing the temperature of the ocean water resulting in coral bleaching. This essay will focus on damage occurring to the Great Barrier Reef.

The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is the largest and diverse coral ecosystem, and is home to a variety of organisms (Commonwealth of Australia 2016a). However due to environmental and anthropogenic events including climate change, pollution, poor fishing practices, mining and industrialisation (World Wildlife Fund 2016) the GBR is under threat of coral bleaching, eventually causing significant destruction to the ecosystem (Australian Marine Conservation Society 2016). There are numerous sustainability projects to improve the health of the reef including Reef Alliance-Growing a Great Barrier Reef, which is a partnered project of the Reef Trust Sustainability Project Phase Three. This scheme has been implemented to reduce the runoff of pollutants

David Attenborough, a well-known naturalist, introduce us to our modern day “Darwin,” J.E.N. Veron, a former chief scientist whom is the world’s greatest scientific authorities on corals and coral reefs. Veron who has lived and worked on the Great Barrier Reef for most his life has discovered over 20 percent of the known coral species today. And today, he gives us an insight on why the earth’s reefs face a likely mass extinction within the lifespan of the younger generation. During his time as a scientist, he researched particularly on the diversity and evolution of the world’s corals and became aware of their troubles. He then began his studies on the analyses of previous reef extinctions and accrued more evidence of the effects of changing sea levels, temperature stresses, predation by crown of thorns starfish, and human influenced changes in nutrient levels. Veron had witnessed his first patch of coral bleaching off the Great Barrier Reef’s Palm Island in the early 1980s, a tiny clump of white skeleton. Everything started turning white and dies, it was the fast-growing branching corals, but some of the others were horrible to see. After witnessing the mass bleaching, the global damage confirmed a close connection with El Nino weather cycles. By being susceptible to increases in heat and light, corals were alerting scientists to climatic changes. When corals are exposed to temperatures two or three degrees hotter than their evolved maximum, along

Unfortunately, the most diverse ecosystem on the planet has been ravaged by the effects of climate change. Record breaking levels of coral bleaching continue to deteriorate the Great Barrier Reef due to pesticides and nutrients flowing into the water

Unfortunately, there are many factors that pose as potential threats to the Great Barrier Reef. The biggest threats to its health are natural pressures like extreme weather conditions and climate

There are some natural threats to the Great Barrier Reef. Coral bleaching is one natural threat to the Great Barrier Reef. This happens when the temperature of the water increases. Because of the increase in the temperature of the water the algae are killed. This can lead to discoloration of the reef. Another natural threat to the reef is the crown of thorns starfish. The crown of thorns starfish kills corals by sticking onto it and releasing neurotoxins onto the coral.

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.

Todays coral reefs are easily overlooked going unnoticed by many of people around the world .What many of people fail to relize though is how much of an important role they play in todays society. For centuries are oceans have adapted to climate change along with the many organisms that inhabit them. But with in the last century our oceans have experienced climate change on scale like no other. With the oceans temperature and pollution levels rising the National oceanic atmospheric association (NOAA)predicted that by the year 2050 nearly 90% of earths coral reefs will be dead and dying . In a recent news article called Intervention the author stated that “Scientist are now scrambling to ensure that at least a fraction of these unique ecosystem survives beyond the next three decades. The health of the planet depends on it: Coral reefs support a quarter of all marine species, as well as half a billion people around the world. “