A threatened area

1. A threatened area CORAL REEFS

2. The Great Barrier Reef: We will watch all three presentations. You will vote. Assessment: SKILLS: Individual grade for your section – slide content and presentation skills KNOWLEDGE: Individual grade for what you remember afterwards – worksheet. UNDERSTANDING AND APPLICATION: Exam question

3. Where the Great Barrier Reef is Facts that let us know it is a biodiversity hotspot (1 person) How coral forms, How the GBR functions as an ecosystem – trophic levels, food web, energy, inputs, outputs, (all the key words up till now) (2 people) Human threats – tourism, farming, fishing, global warming (2 people) Natural threats – Predators – crown of thorns starfish, storms/cyclones/El Nino (1 person) Whoever finishes first: Conclusion – All of these threats combined – equilibrium – consequences for economy/coastal defence/biodiversity.

4. Where the Great Barrier Reef isFacts that let us know it is a biodiversity hotspot • Length/area • No of species • Types of species • (Hard coral species, proportion soft coral out of world’s population) • No. of world’s threatened turtles, species of marine mammals

5. Human threats – tourism, farming, fishing, global warming • Tourism • Over fishing • Sea floor trawling • Commercial/subsistence farming • Sedimentation • Mangroves • Sea pollution – causes • Coral bleaching

6. Natural threats – Predators – crown of thorns starfish, storms/cyclones/El Nino • Diseases • Predators • Crown of thorns starfish • Storms • Cyclones • El Nino

7. Conclusion • Can withstand one threat • Combined threats a problem • Irreversible damage • Breakdown of the reef system • Critical threshold reached – even if threats stop, damage cannot be reversed and ecosystem won’t recover • Loss of biodiversity • New equilibrium established – not a hotspot anymore