Serena Du Sault
Newspaper Conservation Report
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef
The most famous coral reef, the Australia Great Barrier Reef, is located off the coast of Queensland on the Australian north-eastern coast for more than 2600 kilometres, and is nearly 350 000 square kilometres in area.
The formation of the numerous corals in the Australia Great Barrier needs many different and indispensable factors for their growth. Corals need to grow in shallow water where sunlight can reach them, as coral depends on the zooxanthellae growing inside of corals for oxygen and food. Clear water is necessary to let the sunlight through, so if the water is opaque because of sediment or plankton, corals won’t receive sunlight.
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The biggest threat to the coral reef’s future is climate change, which affects the temperature of the water and causes coral reefs to die if too hot, or too cold. 70% of coral reefs worldwide are being damaged by climate change, and not only the Australia Great Barrier Reef.
Pollution, including sediment, nutrient and pesticide pollution from heavy rain, is impacting severely the health and resilience of the reef’s ecosystem. The amount of sediment flowing into the sea had quadrupled over the past 150 years, caused by the grazing and cropping expansion that brings fertilizers and pesticides into the sea. Petrol released by boats and factories, is then flowed into the sea, harming the coral reefs as well as sea life.
Nutrient, increasing, encourage algal blooms that cause a population explosion of devastating crown-of-thorns starfish. Since 1985 coral cover has declined by half, along the Australia Great Barrier Reef, the population of starfish being responsible for 40% of this loss. Tourism also affects the coral reefs, because of people taking away the coral and killing a whole population of polyps. Tourism boats as well damage the coastal reef by crushing and destroying it when