Great Barrier Reef Under Environmental Stress

Multiple Environmental Threats to World’s Largest Coral Reef System

May 5, 2009 Laurence O'Sullivan

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, considered one of the seven natural wonders of the world, is the largest coral reef system on the planet. Despite the best efforts of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) this haven of biodiversity faces multiple environmental threats, such as pollution problems on the Australian mainland, ever increasing numbers of tourists, illegal fishing methods and a changing marine environment due to global warming.

Great Barrier Reef a Haven of Biodiversity

Often referred to as the “Rainforests of the Oceans”, coral reefs are havens of biodiversity, and none more so than the Great Barrier Reef.

• Climate Change 2007 by Martin L. Parry, published by Cambridge University Press states, “The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is the world's largest continuous reef system (2,100 km long) and is a critical storehouse of Australian marine biodiversity and a breeding ground for seabirds and other marine vertebrates such as the humpback whale."

• The marine biologist Robin Aiello, quoted in Reef Facts for Tour Guides, published by the GBRMPA in January 2008 says, "There are more different species of animals and plants in a cubic metre of the Great Barrier Reef, than in any other environment in the world – including tropical rainforests. In fact, some reefs in the Great Barrier Reef have more different fish types than in the entire Caribbean Ocean.”

• In Resilience Thinking, published by Island Press in 2006, the author Brian Walker states, “The Caribbean reefs have only a fraction of the number of species found on the Great Barrier Reef, approximately 28 percent of fishes and a mere 14 percent for corals. The Great Barrier Reef has a much higher diversity”.

Environmental Threats to the Great Barrier Reef

Although one of the better managed coral reef systems in the world, the Great Barrier Reef is still under environmental duress from pollution runoff, bottom trawling fishing, tourism and especially the changing marine environment due to climate change.

• The Weather Makers, by Tim Flannery, published by Atlantic Monthly Press in 2006 claims, “Even protected places such as Australia's Great Barrier Reef are becoming severely degraded, in that case from a fourfold increase in nutrient and pollution-rich sediments derived from croplands, which the intense El Nino events and tropical cyclones characteristic of our new climate carry far out to sea.”

• The Geomorphology of the Great Barrier Reef by David Hopley, published by Cambridge University Press in 2007 states, “Shipping movements, commercial fishing activities, and a marine tourism industry worth over A$2 billion annually also have impacts on the reef and large areas of the reef have been affected by coral bleaching especially in 1997- 98 which was the hottest year on record.”

• According to Great Barrier Reef 2050, published by the WWF in February 2004, the authors, Hans Hoegh-Guldberg and Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, claim that climate change induced temperature rises will, “exceed the local thermal tolerances of reef-building corals on annual basis by 2030–60. The calculated thermal stress levels rise to several-fold higher than those seen in 2002 and lead to the highly probable conclusion that reefs dominated by coral will be rare in the Great Barrier Reef region by 2050.”

• Speaking of the effects on global warming in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific, published by ABC-CLIO in 2005, the author, Donald Garden says, “Dead reefs will cause an ecological crash through the Pacific and leave the islands more open to erosion and storm damage. Much of the Great Barrier Reef is also expected to die.”

The Great Barrier Reef was created by coral polyps, one of the planet’s smaller organisms, yet is the only structure created by living organisms viewable from space. How ironic that damage to coral reef biodiversity, caused by the actions of the world’s highest organism, mankind, is putting this haven of biodiversity under environmental stress that could eventually lead to its demise.