Great Barrier Reef Outlook Report 2009 – In Brief

2BIODIVERSITYBiodiversity is the variety among all plants and animals. Itencompasses all living things, from microbes and singlecell algae to marine turtles and whales, and their habitats.Importantly, it is not just a measure of how many speciesthere are. Rather, it encompasses all natural variation - fromgenetic differences within one species to variations across ahabitat or a whole ecosystem.The Great Barrier Reef Region is vast, covering 14 degreesof latitude and extending 70 to 250km from the coast. It isone of the world’s best known and most complex naturalsystems and continues to support extensive plant and animalbiodiversity. Coral reefs are the best known part of the GreatBarrier Reef Region, yet they make up only seven per cent ofits area. Over one-third of the Great Barrier Reef Region is infact continental slope and extremely deep oceanic habitatsThe sheer scale of the ecosystem means monitoring hasfocused on a few key habitats and species or groups of species,generally those that are iconic (such as coral reefs, seabirds),commercially important (such as seagrass meadows, coraltrout) or threatened (such as dugongs, marine turtles). Thereare few long-term monitoring programs established and thebaseline from which to make comparisons is different foreach group studied.types within the Great Barrier Reef (for example the lagoonfloor, shoals, Halimeda banks and the continental slope).The overall area of mangrove forest adjacent to the GreatBarrier Reef appears to be generally stable except wherethere is significant coastal development. Changes in seagrasscommunities appear to be mainly due to natural cyclesof decline and recovery although they are influenced byrunoff from catchments. Available evidence indicates thatthe overall status of coral reefs on the Great Barrier Reef isrelatively good. There is some evidence of a small decline incoral reef habitat over recent decades (figure 2.1), more soin inshore areas, but the trends are difficult to interpret ascoral reefs are naturally very dynamic habitats. The declinemay have already begun to affect species that depend oncoral reef habitat.% cover40353025201510501986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007Figure 2.1Hard coral cover in the Great Barrier Reef,1986-2008, as measured using manta towsurveys 1Assessments of coral reef status are usually based on the amount ofcoral on a reef. On the Great Barrier Reef, coral cover has undergonea wide range of changes and there is no strong, consistent overalltrend. As measured using manta tow surveys throughout the GreatBarrier Reef, average coral cover has declined over the last 22years, amounting to an average annual change of -0.29%. Resultsof another survey technique from 1993 to 2007 show a very slightincrease. Other analyses suggest there may have been significantdeclines in coral cover prior to the implementation of systematiclong-term monitoring.Ribbon reefs form an almost continuous chain in the far northernGreat Barrier Reef.Habitats to support species The Great Barrier Reefsupports a wide variety of habitats from mangrovesand beaches to deep open water. There is little detailedinformation about the status and trends of many habitatPopulations of species and groups of species TheGreat Barrier Reef ecosystem is made up of thousands ofspecies. Nowhere near all of them have been identifiedand described. Populations appear to be intact for the vastmajority of species or groups of species in the Great BarrierReef ecosystem. Latitudinal and cross-shelf biodiversityappears to be being maintained; however inshore speciesand their habitats adjacent to the developed coast are undermore pressure than those both offshore and further north.Little is known about the status of most Great Barrier Reefspecies such as non-commercial invertebrates, planktonand microbes. Of the more than 1600 bony fish species,3GREAT BARRIER REEF OUTLOOK REPORT 2009 IN BRIEF