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The Great Barrier Reef has been placed on a list of finalists to be among seven wonders of nature similar to the seven ancient wonders of the world, revived by The New7Wonders Foundation. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef system as well as the largest single structure created by living creatures. The Reef consists of 3,000 individual reefs and 900 islands, stretching approximately 1,600 miles (2,600 kilometers) it is visible from space.
The New 7 Wonders of Nature list seeks to spotlight and promote the preservation of natural places and world heritage. This list follows the Foundation’s campaign for the public to choose seven new man-made wonders of the world, which were announced July 7 in Portugal.
The Great Barrier Reef is among the top 14 of 28 finalists, based on people’s choice. On this list, the Reef is keeping company with Mount Vesuvius, the Amazon Rainforest, the Bay of Fundy, the Galapagos Islands, the Grand Canyon, the Dead Sea, Angel Falls, Halong Bay, Iguazu Falls, the Maldive Islands, Uluru (Ayers Rock), Jeita Grotto and the Puerto Princesa underground river. After being put to a global vote, the final seven will be announced in 2011.
Suffering From Climate Change
The Reef, along with other coral reefs of the world, is suffering from changes due to temperature increases and man-made pollution. Temperature changes have various effects on corals while chemical runoff and carbon emissions have acidified oceans. A former scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science has warned that the Reef is doomed and will not be around in 20 years.
Rising temperatures cause coral to eject microscopic algae that normally live within the tissue of the coral, according to a recent article in The Times. Coral depend largely on these algae for their energy and color. When the algae are lost, coral turn white, a process referred to as bleaching, as their calcium carbonate skeletons are exposed, and they starve. Usually when temperatures return to normal corals recover, but a mounting concern is that corals may no longer have opportunities to recover as scientists expect a continuous rise in temperature.
Extinction under these circumstances could occur by mid-century, according to the Zoological Society of London, the Royal Society and the International Programme on the State of the Ocean, the Times said.
Gene Study
One type of coral making up the Reef is part of a new genome mapping project just announced by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies of James Cook University. ARC, along with the Australian Genome Research Facility and the Australian National University, will work together to sequence and assemble the genome of Acropora millepora, a familiar coral to visitors of the Reef.
This particular coral has approximately 20,000 genes, the same as humans. Its genetic complexity will provide much in the way of understanding evolution of all animals, ARC says.
Mapping the genes of this “simple but complex” animal is expected to yield valuable insight into how corals build reefs and why they don’t when under stress.
