Executive Summary: The Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef

What is the Great Barrier Reef?

The Great Barrier Reef is a huge, colourful and bright coral reef, situated off the coast of Queensland in the Coral Sea. It is so big that it is the only living thing that can be seen from Space! It consists of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands that stretch over 348,700 km². It is in a wet, tropical climate with reasonably warm Winters and a high humidity in the Summer. Water temperatures span from 14 degrees Celsius in the Winter to 33 degrees Celsius in the Summer. Maximum air temperatures can reach around 24 to 32 degrees Celsius. The Great Barrier Reef also has two seasons, ‘the green’ and ‘the dry’. At night, nocturnal species of fish come out, including the dog face and

With less producers (e.g. marine algae) means less first order consumers or herbivorous consumers (e.g. giant clam) as there is less food to eat. This means population of first order consumers would shrink. With less first order consumers the second order consumers (e.g. box jellyfish) who are also carnivorous consumers who eat the first order consumers don’t have enough food to eat either. This means that their population shrinks too. Now the third order consumers who are also carnivorous consumers (e.g. sea snake) who eat the second order consumers would shrink too because now they don’t have enough food. In summary, the population of the Great Barrier Reef would decrease a lot, possibly endangering some

The most intense damage occurring further south last year, Queensland scientists say. Over 1,500km had been bleached. The main cause is the coral cannot keep with the heat. Global warming is a huge problem. Other threats to the Great Barrier Reef include agriculture, more specifically, ports accommodating coal, natural gas and oil shale extraction plants. Also, agricultural irrigation, which carries pollutants into waterways and reef lagoons that cause water quality to decline as well as by nearby port infrastructure development. Another thing with ports is that pieces of sediment go into the water possibly causing quite toxic effects. Turtles in Gladstone Harbour have high levels of metals, which is a contributing to a worrying number of fatalities of turtles in the area.

Strategies to Protect the Great Barrier Reef

Some strategies to protect the Great Barrier Reef are to manage water extraction with the principles of ecologically sustainable development. Also, protect native vegetation, control of overwhelming numbers of crown of thorns star fish and a reduction of run-off containing harmful chemicals or particles. Simple strategies for everyday people would be simply doing the obvious like minimising littering and other pollution. These would all help to protect the Great Barrier Reef from what we have done to it. It is one of Australia’s biggest tourist attractions, so we must take care