I’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of $1000 to communicate their work.
Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.
This zone is the Boron Zone. It has a range of scientists studying all different topics. Who gets the prize? YOU decide!
I really don’t know the details, but I understand that it is pretty sensitive to acidity and ocean temperatures. I get the impression it is in real danger, which is really sad. I bet Mark knows.
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Incredibly concerning! To think one of the largest living structures on the planet may be reduced or destroyed by human induced changes is hard to swallow!
Mark wrote a terrific piece about the decreasing alkalinity due to dissolved CO2 forming carbonic acid – have a look for it well worth a read!
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Hi awesomeness (great name) & awesome Question
There is no question that the GBR is under a high degree of threat from three main factors. And while there are concerns I live in a world of hope and I can see the awesome work of the people that care for the reef working. Personally I live in a city next to the reef, my family loves going to reef snorkelling etc and I am extremely passionate about trying to fix some of the reefs problems.
The 3 issues are.
1) water quality from catchments especially those in central and northern Qld (between Cairns and Gladstone) – what happens in the the runoff from catchments is high in sediments, and high in nutrients and these can influence coastal systems like coral and seagrass – you can google “reef rescue GBR” to find more on this.
2) crown of thorns starfish (COTS)- this a is a hotly debated topic, but this year the COTS are coming back in big numbers – the question is whether this is natural or not.
3) climate change – Much of the excess CO2 is absorbed by the oceans – in fact science is indicating that oceans have absorbed ~50% of the excess CO2 produced by humans in last 200 years. The absorbed CO2 then results in chemical changes to the oceans, especially surface waters (<10m deep). The CO2 bonds with sea water to form carbonic acid and this chemical change has resulted in decreases in pH by ~0.1 while this is generally called ocean acidification the oceans are still alkaline. A few other chemical reaction take place and what happens is that fewer carbonate ions are available for use by animals who need them to make shells or calcium bodies. Scientists predict that the GBR waters will reduce from a pH of ~8.2 to 7.8 over the next 100 years which has large implication for corals as they need carbonate for their skeletons. Hope that made sense.
It is easy to get hung up on doom and gloom but there is hope, in fact there is a lot of hope. Community and Government efforts are very collaborative and are working in many ways. Reef Guardian schools run by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority is a great example. Perhaps it will be a different looking reef but it will still be awesome (did I use that word enough).
You can check the following website for awesome information http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au
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I think it would be incredibly tragic, especially because from what I understand this is avoidable. I am happy to read in Mark’s answer that there is hope! 🙂
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