THE FRAGLIE ECOSYSTEM
THE LIFE OF THE GREAT BARRIER REEF BY SARU
THE CLASSIFICATION
The Great Barrier Reef is a well known attraction. It also is the world's largest coral reef and also is the biggest reef in the world. It has the climate of a tropical rainforest and has the highest biodiversity in the world. The Great Barrier Reef is located in north east of Queensland and is bigger than Victoria. It stretches a whopping 3000 kilometres and it approximately consist of 3000 individual reefs. Each reef can be up to 1 hectare to 10000 hectares in area. The temperatures of the wetlands have decreased by over 50% since European settlement because the Europeans did not know how to look after the wetlands. The Great Barrier Reef is manly made up of coral they are a group of animals that are found in tropical oceans in the world. the great barrier reef is home to millions of wild life animals and plants. It is the only living organic collective visible from the earth's orbit.
FLORA
The plants in the Great Barrier Reef can be as small as microscopic ants. There is a variety of plants in the Great Barrier Reef which includes marine wild life animals. There are 3000 species of algae and seaweed. So that means that there are around about 1500 species of seaweed . Half of all seaweed are actually poisonous there for that mean that half of the seaweed are not poisonous. Only half of the poisonous seaweed actually have a clear effect on humans there for the the other half only has a clear effect on animals and other plants in the Great Barrier Reef. There are meadows that only grow on the surface and some only grow under the surface in the world. It is one of the only places in the world that you can see meadows that only grow underground in water. Also a quarter of all sea grass that humans have found is there. The contribution to preservation and biodiversity of the reef is with out question.
FAUNA
It is home to approximately every animal species in the whole country. It is home to 1500 species of fish from the smallest bait fish to the the biggest sharks in the world. There are 300 speciesof hard coral , between 5000 and 8000 species of mollusks. There are 6000 species of ecchinoderms, 17 species of sea snakes also there are 1500 species of sponges, 30 species of whale and dolphins. Some more are 6 species of marine wild life turtles, 22 species of seabirds and 32 species of shorebids. Also tiger sharks and sea horse. If these animals are removed from the earth with nothing of them left it will be hard for the animals to survive and it will take a big part out of the food chain. A lot of animal species that are only found there will become extinct. Yet it is thought that some of the animals in the Great Barrier Reef have not been discovered.
TOURISM
There are millions and millions of people that go to the Great Barrier Reef each year more precisely 1.99 million people each year. Most people go there because they want to go scuba diving or maybe enjoy the trills of scuba diving. It is one of the only chances you may get to experience or see marine wild life animals. some people go to the great barrier reef to have a nice lovely tropical holiday. If people keep going to scuba dive in the the Great Barrier Reef the water level will rise to an amount where fish can't survive and some other animals will die and will be extinct also that includes boats that rise the water level.
THREATS OR DANGER
There are many threats and dangers the that the great barrier reef faces and one of them is climate change. Another threat or danger is dirty water caused by pollution from humans kicking dirt into the water from the dirty streets and dust. Two more are from climate from big stoms keep forming and the sea is getting hotter and mealting the coral away. The last one is star fish that eat the coral. So you see that not all threats and dangers are caused by humans.
INTERSTING FACTS
Did you know that in 2003 the government of australia and the government of queensland formed a partnership and made the reef quality protection reef plan? They also did not get to finsh the reef quality protection reef plan and still haven't till this day. that star fish can still eat coral and needs coral to live. the great barrier reef is about the same size as the daintree rainforest.