The Great Barrier Reef (GBR)
Source : The Hindu
GS III : Environment and Conservation

What is discussed under The Great Barrier Reef (GBR)?

1. What are Coral Reefs?
2. Great Barrier Reef of Australia
3. Key highlights of Report

Why in News ?

The northern and central regions of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef have seen the highest levels of coral cover in the last 36 years (GBR) according to Long-Term Monitoring Program Annual Summary Report of Coral Reef Condition 2021/22. 

What are Coral Reefs?

• • A coral reef is an aquatic habitat characterised by corals that construct reefs.
  • Reefs are made up of coral polyp colonies bound together by calcium carbonate.

    

  • These aquatic habitat don’t not have any spines. 

Two types of Corals

1. 1. Hard corals
      • They extract calcium carbonate from seawater to build hard, white coral exoskeletons.
      • Hard corals are in a way the engineers of reef ecosystems.
      • Measuring the extent of hard corals is a widely-accepted metric for measuring the condition of coral reefs.
   2. Soft corals
      • They attach themselves to such skeletons and older skeletons built by their ancestors.
      • Soft corals also add their own skeletons to the hard structure over the years.
      • These growing multiplying structures gradually form coral reefs.

Great Barrier Reef of Australia

• • It is the world’s biggest reef system.
  • It is spanning around 2,300 kilometres and containing approximately 3,000 distinct reefs.
  • It also supports 400 distinct varieties of coral, 1,500 different fish species, and 4,000 different mollusc. 
  • It also comprises endemic species and threatened species as listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
  • It is also one of the major tourist attractions in the country and contributes to the economic development of the country.
  • Reef generated  tourism and employed over 60,000 people including divers and guides.

Key highlights of Report

• • This study summarises the status of Great Barrier Reef (GBR) coral reefs based on Long-Term Monitoring Program (LTMP) surveys of 87 reefs carried out between August 2021 and May 2022. 
  • Reefs of fast-growing Acropora corals in the Northern and Central GBR have showed an ability to initiate recovery following disturbances throughout the past 36 years of monitoring by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS).
  • Survey reefs experienced low levels of other acute stress over the past 12 months, with no severe cyclones impacting the Marine Park.
  • Above-average water temperatures led to a mass coral bleaching event over the austral summer of 2021/22.
  • Nearly half of the surveyed reefs (39 out of 87) had hard coral cover levels between 10% and 30%, while almost a third of the surveyed reefs (28 out of 87) had hard coral cover levels between 30% and 50%.
  • Central and Northern GBR, region-wide hard coral cover reached 33% and 36%, respectively.

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