 |
| http://www.padi.com/scuba/scuba-diving-trips/scuba-diving-resort-vacations/australia-great-barrier-reef/ |
Picture - This picture shows the Great Barrier Reef.
Summary - The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef ecosystem. It has a very large biodiversity, but research shows it is currently going through a decline. It appears that half of the coral reef has completely disappeared. Katherine Fabricius, a coral reef ecologist that has been diving since 1988, said "I hear the changes anecdotally, but this is the first long-term look at the overall status of the reef. There are still a lot of fish, and you can see the giant clams, but not the same color and diversity as in the past". Fabricius and her colleagues surveyed 214 different coral reef's near the Great Barrier Reef, and have gathered information from 2, 258 surveys and have figured out the rate of decline between the years of 1985 until 2012. They found that the biggest contributing factors are the smashing from tropical cyclones, crown-of-thorns starfish that eat coral, and also from coral bleaching from high-temperatures. Some scientists say that reducing carbon dioxide emissions is a key factor to saving the reef. Les Kaufman said "There is absolutely no excuse for failure to do this, and if we do fail our generation will forever be remembered for unimaginable, unforgivable stupidity and sloth".
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/10/03/the-great-dwindling-barrier-reef-loses-half-its-coral-cover-in-under-30-years/. This article talks about the loss of coral in the great barrier eef in the last 30 years. This has been a major problem and needs to be adressed.
ReplyDeleteRoman
What kind of animals live in the great barrier reef and what other kinds of fish are their? I believe this is a very interesting article that gives great insight to a very bad bad problem in our environmental.
ReplyDeleteRoman
Besides the abundant amount of coral, there are plenty of other organisms that live in the Great Barrier Reef. There are about 1,500 species of fish, about 5,000 to 8,000 species of mollusks, 17 species of sea snakes, 1,5000 species of sea sponges, 30 species of whales and dolphins, 6 different kinds of turtles, and over 60 different species of both seabirds and shorebirds. As you can see, there are plenty of organisms that inhabit the Great Barrier Reef. There was not enough information in or blog to answer the question so this is the site I used to find out my answer: http://animals.about.com/od/habitat-facts/tp/great-barrier-reef-animals.htm
Delete