Great Barrier Reef

The Australian Great Barrier Reef - in Spanish, Great Barrier Reef, Great Barrier and Great Barrier Reef - is the largest coral reef in the world. The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland in northeast Australia. The reef, which extends along some 2600 kilometers, can be seen from space.

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef in the world. It consists of more than 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands that stretch over 2600 kilometers over an area of approximately 334,400 square kilometers. The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland in north-east Australia.

The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from space and is the world's largest single structure made by living organisms. This reef structure consists of and was made by millions of small organisms, known as coral polyps. It contains a great diversity of life and was selected for the World Heritage List in 1981. CNN named it one of the Seven Wonders of the World, but others call it "the eighth wonder of the world".

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest tourist attraction in Australia. From places such as Cairns and Townsville, many tourist activities are developed around the reef, including diving trips and boat trips.

It is difficult to delimit its exact extent, although it is considered to begin near latitude 9°S, south of Papua New Guinea, and continue southeast to latitude 24 ° S, mostly as a line parallel to the southern coast of Queensland. Nor is it a continuous reef line, but is made up of more than 2000 individual reefs and almost 1000 islands.

Although he was not the first European explorer to spot the Great Barrier Reef, the Englishman James Cook was the first to conduct a scientific exploration of the area after running the HMB Endeavor on the reef on June 11, 1770, and remain six weeks in the area while repairing.

Due to its vast biological diversity, it’s clear temperate waters and its easy accessibility, the reef is a very popular destination among diving enthusiasts. Many cities on the coast of Queensland (such as Cairns and Townsville) offer daily boat trips to the reef.

The Great Barrier Reef is sometimes referred to as the largest living animal being in the world. In fact, it consists of the millenary accumulation of many skeletons of coral colonies of the order Scleractinia, composed of calcium carbonate and aragonite mainly. On these structures, which extend along kilometers, one of the largest concentrations of biodiversity on the planet is brought together.

A large area of the reef is protected by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. The Great Barrier Reef was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1981. It has an area of 34,870,000 ha.

Condition

A lot of research is being done into the condition of the Great Barrier Reef. The reef may have been damaged since 1870, when settlers settled in Queensland. Because of forest clearing and land fertilization, sludge and manure would have seeped into the ocean, causing coral to grow or die less well.

A study by an Australian research team, published in 2009, has shown that the rate at which coral absorbs lime from seawater has fallen sharply over the previous 20 years. This would lead to a delayed growth of stony corals in this area. According to researchers, this was possibly due to the increase in carbon dioxide (CO 2) in the atmosphere causing oceans to gradually acidify, or to the warming of the seawater.

In October 2012, Australian researchers revealed that the total coral reef had shrunk by half compared to 1985. 48 percent of the decrease was caused by storms, 42 percent by coral-eating starfish and only 10 percent by global warming, which was initially seen as the main cause. Partial recovery would be possible by controlling the starfish population, but can take many years.

In 2016, and again in 2017, an alarm was raised after a massive phenomenon of coral bleaching, with the result that more than a third of the coral in the northern and central part would have died.

The threatened coral

The Great Barrier Reef has been affected by global warming that is increasing more and more. Corals are species very sensitive to changes in ocean temperature. In fact, recent studies have found that in 2016 has killed about 35% of corals in 84 areas of northern and central sections of the Great Barrier Reef, because the bleaching of coral produced by the increase of sea temperature. The sea heat waves of 2016 and 2017 generated coral bleaching of two-thirds of the total reef.

On the other hand, the effects of indiscriminate fishing and pollution have caused the barrier to be damaged, reducing the ecosystem that is housed in it. If these actions continue, the Great Barrier Reef will continue to lose fish, aquatic flora, etc.

The crown-of-thorns starfish, which are deteriorating corals all over the world, have also begun to affect the Great Barrier, since the starfish, when they have reached adulthood, consume what they measure, that is, If a starfish has a diameter of 60 cm, consume the same hard coral daily.

Ecology

Thirty species of whales, dolphins and porpoises have been recorded in the Great Barrier Reef, including the dwarf minke whale, the Indo-Pacific dolphin and the humpback whale. Large populations of dugongs live there.

Six species of sea turtles reach the reefs: the green turtle, the leatherback turtle, the hawksbill turtle, the loggerhead turtle, and the golf turtle. The green sea turtles in the Great Barrier Reef have two genetically distinct populations, one in the northern part of the reef, and the other in the southern part. Fifteen species of seagrass attract dugongs and turtles, and provide habitat for fish. The most common genera of seagrasses are Halophila and Halodule.

The crocodiles saltwater live in the swamps of mangrove and on the coast near the reef. Forty-nine species of fish and nine species of seahorses have been recorded. At least seven species of frogs inhabit their islands.

215 species of birds (including 32 species of shorebirds) visit the reef, settling in nests or roosts on the islands, such as the white-bellied sea eagle and the pink tern. The islands of the Great Barrier Reef also house 2195 known plant species. Three of them are endemic. The northern islands have 300 to 350 species of plants that tend to be woody, while the southern islands have 200, which tend to be herbaceous, the Whitsunday region is the most diverse, with 1141 species. Plants spread by birds.

Seventeen species of sea snake live in the Great Barrier Reef, in the warm waters up to 50 meters (164 feet) deep, and are more common in the south, than in the northern section. None of those found in the Great Barrier Reef are endemic, nor are they in danger of extinction.