The 3 regions of The Great Barrier Reef

The Northern Region

The Northern section of The Great Barrier Reef is around 115,000 square miles of coral filled seas, which contains some completely remote islands, and some islands with airports and resorts. This area is also the area, with the most coral bleaching of any of the regions. This area has approximately 81% of the coral severely bleached.

The Central Region

The central region of the Great Barrier Reef contains the largest tropical city in Australia, Townsville. The central region also contains the only living coral reef in captivity, which is actually located in Townsville. An Island called "Magnetic Island" is also in this region. This island has over 2,000 permanent inhabitants, and it contains forts from World War 2.

The Southern Region

The southern region contains the most successful port in Australia, Gladstone, which can attribute its success to the exports of coal and aluminum. The southern region also contains a large sugarcane exporter, which supplies 20% of the total sugar to Australia.

The Great Barrier Reef

The great barrier reef is the largest coral reef in the world, and is the only living thing visible from space. The coral reef is in some parts 65 km wide, and it is 3,000 km long. The coral reef contains over 400 different kinds or coral, and 1,500 different types of tropical fish. The great barrier reef serves many purposes, such as being a breeding ground for humpback whales, and a home for endangered species.

Animals Supported by Coral Reefs

Many animals live in coral reefs, actually as many as a quarter of all ocean animals depend on reefs for protection and as for a food source. Animals like crabs and shrimp live in the reefs and protect the reefs. Animals like fish simply swim around reefs to find food and use the reefs for protection from large predators.

How Coral Reefs Are Affected

     Coral reefs biggest threat is rising temperatures of ocean water. As the temperature of water rises, corals lose their symbiotic partners, the algae providing the corals with food. This leaves corals "bleached", which is when the corals lose their bright colors. If this condition continues parts of the reef may start to die off, and the whole colony or reef may die. To help prevent coral bleaching, people can walk to work or school or bike or carpool, because the less we burn fossil fuels, the less global warming is worsened.

  

Coral Reefs, What They Are and How They Work

Coral is basically a plant with a mouth on one end and a stomach on the other, and yeah that's basically it. As more and more of these coral gather, they form colonies and eventually reefs. Corals eat very small animals floating by stinging them with their barbed mouths, or tentacles, but that is not their only source of food. Corals also get their food from zooxanthellae (which are what actually give the coral their color, since coral are translucent), which are tiny single celled algae which share a symbiotic relationship with the coral. The algae perform photosynthesis and give food to the coral and the coral in turn give the algae nutrients. Coral reefs get their structure from the hard bases of each coral, called the calicle which is a kind of limestone skeleton that provides structure for the coral.