Great Barrier Reef: Victim of Global Warming
Published by The Great Barrier Reef is the largest structure built by living creatures on earth and it is dying.
The largest structure ever built by living creatures is the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. The reef itself lies two thousand kilometres off the north east Queensland shore. To be completely accurate, this is not one structure, but a collection of two thousand nine hundred coral reefs and nine hundred islands all combining to make this massive 130,000 square mile area. It is the habitat of more than thirty different species of whales, dolphins and porpoises.
Image by brewbooks via Flickr
Image via Wikipedia
Many of the reefs in this myriad of structures are almost dry and others get cover my barely an inch of water at low tide. Some reefs have islands of sharp sand from the coral, or cays (also spelled keyes) which are long sandy islands, while other run like a garland along the coast of the mainland.
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Each reef has been formed from the skeletons and skeletal waste of masses of living marine organisms over millions of years. The ‘bricks’, or the main parts that hold the entire structure together are the coral polyps and hydrocorals. The ‘cement’ that keeps these ‘bricks’ together is mostly formed from the remains of small organisms known as coralline algae, or polyzoas.
Image via Wikipedia
The tiny gaps in this huge structure known as interstices are filled with skeletal waste which is produced by waves pounding down on them and the detritus left behind by small organisms that live in the reef.
Image via Wikipedia
Unfortunately this area which has been known to Aboriginal Australians for hundreds of years and is part of their heritage and culture is now being severely damaged year after year by tourism and over fishing. What has taken nature millions of years to build up will only take human beings tens of years to destroy. There is already evidence that the Great Barrier Reef which one of the true natural wonders of the world is already dying and shrinking in size.
Image via Wikipedia
Image via Wikipedia
Climate change is causing what is known as coral bleaching where the sea temperature is rising because of global warming. This process is caused by microscopic algae which give the coral its colour being killed so that the coral becomes white. The subject of coral bleaching is one that is very likely to be discussed in climate change summits in the years to come. Let’s hope that they do more than talk.
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8 Responses to “Great Barrier Reef: Victim of Global Warming”
On December 21, 2009 at 7:59 am
Hi Jan
Yes I believe that global warming is contributing to deterioration of such wonders like the Great barrier Reef, but I feel with the over-population of man is contibuting more with our excrements and man made waste poluting the atmoshere as well as the oceans. Carbon dioxide, methane and other gasses add acids to the soils as well as the air and with the degeneration of our plant life is finding it hard to cope.
On December 21, 2009 at 8:54 am
informative post…good researched..nice pic
On December 21, 2009 at 8:57 am
wow..great post..very interesting..
On December 21, 2009 at 10:48 am
It would be a tragic event if we lost a beautiful thing, such as The Great Barrier Reef. Good article.
On December 21, 2009 at 11:09 am
It should be saved from extinction
On December 22, 2009 at 7:58 am
goog photos not bad
thinks jam
On December 22, 2009 at 11:55 am
the poor reef! I hope there is a way to save it!
On January 1, 2010 at 1:15 pm
such a thing of beauty really brings home the impact of the consequences of global warming. True enough the talking needs to be backed up by urgent actions
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