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Great Barrier Reef
Located in Australia, the Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest reef and encompasses an area of 133,000 square miles.
476 Questions
Is the Great Barrier Reef an atoll?
No. The Great Barrier Reef is not a single atoll, but atolls do form part of it. The Great Barrier Reef is a series of atolls, islands and reefs extending for a length of approximately 2300km.
Has anyone died in the Great Barrier Reef?
Yes divers and swimmers have lost their lives in the great barrier reef.
Why does pollution affect the Great Barrier Reef?
Overfishing is "catching too many fish". Because of this, it affects the Great Barrier Reef and other oceans because people fish so much that the fish cant sustain their population. Therefore the fish get fewer and fewer and that means no more fish in The reef.
What is the closest major city to the Great Barrier Reef?
The closest airport to the most accessible part of the Great Barrier Reef is Cairns Airport.
What is the natural significance of the Great Barrier Reef?
It is the largest coral reef in the world and houses an enomous amount of sea life.
The environmental importance of the Reef coms from the fact that the health of the Reef points to the health of the ocean, and the creeks and rivers that feed into it, as well as signifying the general effects of pollution. It is of considerable concern that numbers of unique species such as dugong and loggerhead turtles have declined significantly since the 1960s, largely due to human intervention. The Reef shelters many endangered species
What is the keystone species of the great barrier reef?
The Southern Cassowary is the keystone species of Australia.
Cassowaries are considered a keystone species because they play an important role in the ecology of the rainforest and bushland areas where they live, as they are vital in dispersing seeds in their native forests.
They are frugivores which feed on the fruit of up to 238 different species of plants. Because they are able to eat larger fruits, they can therefore can disperse large rainforest fruits after the seeds have passed through their digestive system, which is gentle enough to allow the seeds to remain viable. The cassowary has a wide range, so is also the only long distance means for dispersing large seeded fruits. The seeds are excreted into a pile of the cassowary's own dung, meaning the seeds have their own ready-made pile of fertiliser. The smell of the dung even helps to deter seed-eating predators such as the white-tailed rat. Of the hundreds of fruit-bearing species on which the cassowary feeds, between 70 and 100 of them appear to rely completely on the cassowary for dispersal.
Advantages and disadvantages of Tourism in The Great Barrier Reef?
Advantages - nice
Disadvantages - tourism kills animals and the reef
What starfish is harming the Barrier Reef?
A starfish called Crown of Thorns starfish.
The Crown-of-Thorns Starfish Acanthaster planci, commonly known as the crown-of-thorns starfish, is a large multi-armed starfish (or seastar) that usually preys upon hard, or stony, coral polyps (Scleractinia). It is a coral reef predator which preys on coral polyps by climbing onto them, extruding its stomach over them, and releasing digestive enzymes to absorb the liquified tissue. An individual adult of this species can eat up to six square metres of living reef in a single year.
What is longer Great Barrier Reef or Great Wall of China?
Great Wall of China is about 4,160 miles Amazon River is about 3,980 miles
Is the Great Barrier Reef bigger than the Grand Canyon?
The Great Barrier Reef is far bigger than the Grand Canyon. It extends for around 2300 km in length, covers an area of about 300 000 sq km, while the coral reefs (not the ones with living polyps) reaches down to a depth of up to 500m.
The Grand Canyom, by comparison, is around 446 km long and up to 29 km wide, giving it an area of around 12 934 sq km. It is deeper, however, reaching a depth of up to 1.6 km.
In what ocean is the Great Barrier Reef located?
The Great Barrier Reef is on the east coast of Australia, within the Coral Sea, which is one of the arms of the Pacific Ocean.
Is the Great Barrier Reef near to Brisbane?
No. The southern end of the Great Barrier Reef begins just northeast of Bundaberg, Queensland, and it is a distance of 1 294 km, or 804 miles from Sydney. The Great Barrier Reef then continues for another 2,300 km up the Queensland coast.
When is the best time to go to the Great Barrier Reef?
The ideal time to go to the Great Barrier Reef is from late Autumn to late Spring, which is from May to August. During these months, there is less chance of being stung by any of the many marine stingers found in the Great Barrier Reef. The weather is also better, as the days remain warm, but there is not the uncomfortable humidity of summer.
Do dolphins live in the Great Barrier Reef?
The most common whale species that frequent the waters of the Great Barrier Reef are:
- Humpback whale
- Dwarf minke whale
- Sperm whale
- Short-finned pilot whale
- various species of beaked whales
Do you get water from the Great Barrier Reef?
No. The Great Barrier Reef is a marine biome, located in the Coral Sea, which is an arm of the Pacific Ocean. Freshwater runoff from floods is one of the dangers occasionally faced by the Great Barrier Reef.
What is the relative location of the Great Barrier Reef?
on the northeast coast of AustraliaThe relative location of The Great Barrier Reef is the northeast coast of Australia
What is an example of mutualism in the Great Barrier Reef?
The Great Barrier Reef itself is an example of mutualism. The corals which create coral reefs such as the Great Barrier Reef have a symbiotic relationship with algae known as zooxanthellae. This algae, which lives within the tissues of the coral, causes a photosynthetic reaction which enables the polyps to make skeletons about three times faster in the light than in the dark. This means the corals deposit skeletons faster than the environment can remove it, and these skeletons build upon each other over time, creating a coral reef.
Which island lies east of the Great Barrier Reef?
Many islands lie east of the Great Barrier Reef, as the reef is about 2300 km in length. For example, the islands that make up the countries of Vanuatu, Samoa, Fiji and New Caledonia lie east of the Great Barrier Reef.
Why are there less coral reefs?
Some fish eat coral along with clumsy sharks or whales. The greatest source are humans,who take corals because they look pretty or because the polluting of the sea causes coral to die off.
What is the length of the Great Barrier Reef in kilometres?
The depth of the Great Barrier Reef varies. The coral which makes up the Great Barrier reef is believed to extend to a depth of around 500m in some places, but the actual living polyps only go down as far as 30 metres.
The water in the channel between the shoreline and the reef reaches about 60 metres in depth.
