"<h2>Reef-Dependent Population</h2>In Australia, 2 million people benefit from coral reefs, including 1 million people who are likely highly dependent on reefs for their food or livelihood.(Estimated using WorldPop and World Vector Shoreline. People within 30 km of reefs and 10 km of the coast were considered \"highly dependent,\" while those within 100 km of reefs \"benefit.\")&nbsp;"

"<h2>Tourism</h2>Coral reef-associated tourist expenditure in Australia is valued at $2 billion annually. This includes on-reef recreation (snorkeling, diving, recreational fishing, glass-bottom boat tours, etc.) as well as reef-adjacent benefits (such as white, sandy beaches and sheltered waters)."

Value

Vulnerability

Infrastructure

Habitat

Value and Importance of Coral Reefs

"Between 16 and 21% of the world's coral reefs are in the Australia. Different sources offer different figures for the total area of reef cover: Source &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Area (km²)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Global Share <a href=\"https://data.unep-wcmc.org/datasets/1\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Global Distribution of</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;30,703&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;20.6%<a href=\"https://data.unep-wcmc.org/datasets/1\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Coral Reefs (UNEP-WCMC)</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=\"https://gcrmn.net/products/reports/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Global Coral Reef Monitoring</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;41,802&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;16.1%<a href=\"https://gcrmn.net/products/reports/\\\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Network (GCRMN) Report</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 85% of Australia's coral reefs are located within marine protected areas; 25.5% of these are in “Fully or Highly Protected” areas."

"<h2>Mangroves</h2>Australia possesses about 7% of the world's mapped mangroves. Between 1996 and 2016, the region lost roughly 3% of its mangrove area (a net loss of 270 km²). This net change included both 342 km² of loss and 71 km² of gain. As of 2016, the region had 9,470 km² of mangrove forest."

Ecosystems

Protected Areas

Coral Reefs, Mangroves, and Protection

"<h2>Local Threats</h2>Local activities and pollution threaten 15% of reefs in Australia. Marine sources of pollution was rated as the most pervasive threat. Pollution and sediment from the land and overfishing also threaten some reefs.&nbsp;"

"<h2>Coral Bleaching Conditions</h2>Projections suggest that&nbsp;about half of&nbsp;coral reefs&nbsp;in Australia&nbsp;will experience severe coral bleaching conditions at least twice per decade by the 2030s, and that 90% of reefs will experience such conditions annually by the 2050’s.&nbsp;In&nbsp;light of&nbsp;the frequency of sea surface temperature anomalies&nbsp;in Australia&nbsp;over the past decade, these projections likely&nbsp;underestimate risk.&nbsp;&nbsp;"

"<h2>Ocean Acidification</h2>Most coral reefs in Australia are situated in conditions considered marginal for coral growth, based on ocean acidity and the availability of aragonite. By the 2040s, all reefs will be in areas rated poor for coral growth."

Habitats

Local Threats

Global Threats

Local and Global Threats to Coral Reefs

"<h2>Live Hard Coral Cover</h2>Most coral reef monitoring within Australia has been conducted on the GBR, which includes 85% of the country’s coral reefs, and data are available for multiple time periods for most sites. Between 1994 and 1999 live hard coral cover across Australia declined slightly from 35.2% to 34.5%. Subsequently, large scale coral bleaching events in Australia in 1998 and one more focused on the GBR in 2002 caused hard coral cover to decline to 30.6% by 2003. Substantial recovery occurred during the next four years, with average coral cover reaching 35.4% in 2007. However, between 2008 and 2014, coral cover declined to 27.4%, due to tropical cyclones, the initial stages of a crown-of-thorns starfish outbreak on the GBR and coral bleaching on reefs in Western Australia. This was followed by two years of recovery, however, back-to-back coral bleaching events in 2016 and 2017 resulted in a decline to the lowest coral cover in the record by 2018 (25.7%) and slight recovery by 2019 (to 26.0%).&nbsp;"

"<h2>Algae Cover</h2>The trend in the cover of algae on Australian&nbsp;coral reefs during the last 25 years was generally the inverse of coral cover. In 1994, average cover of algae was 21.2%&nbsp;and&nbsp;increased only slightly over&nbsp;the next five years.&nbsp;Beginning in 1999, while coral cover declined in response to bleaching events, the cover of algae&nbsp;increased substantially,&nbsp;reaching 28.5% in 2003.&nbsp;As coral reefs recovered between 2004 and&nbsp;2008, the cover of algae decreased to 24.5%.&nbsp;From 2008, algal cover has generally increased, with some fluctuations, and substantial&nbsp;increases in 2017 and 2018, peaking at 39.2%, linked to coral decline after bleaching events.&nbsp;In 2019, the average cover of algae was 37.5%,&nbsp;which equates to&nbsp;77% more algae on Australian reefs&nbsp;than was present in&nbsp;1994.&nbsp;"

"Modeled cover of live hard coral cover (left) and algae (right) for Australia. The solid line represents the predicted marginal mean and ribbons represent 80% (lighter shade) and 95% (darker shade) credible intervals. Grey areas of the temporal series represent times for which no observed data were available."

"<h1>Summary</h1> Australia includes between 16%&nbsp;and 20%&nbsp;of the world’s coral reefs.&nbsp;Among them&nbsp;are&nbsp;the iconic Great Barrier Reef (GBR), which is the single largest reef complex on the planet,&nbsp;and Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia&nbsp;– the&nbsp;world’s longest fringing reef. These diverse ecosystems support more than 400 species of hard coral.&nbsp;Australia’s coral reefs are economically&nbsp;and culturally&nbsp;important. The GBR alone contributes an estimated $6.4 billion&nbsp;annually&nbsp;to Australia’s economy and supports 64,000 jobs in the reef-based tourism, fisheries, recreation, and research sectors. Coral reef-associated tourist expenditure in Australia is&nbsp;estimated&nbsp;at $2 billion annually, with more than three-quarters coming from on-reef tourism, such as diving.&nbsp;&nbsp; In light of&nbsp;the importance of these ecosystems, investment in science, monitoring and management is high. Inclusion of&nbsp;coral reefs in&nbsp;protected areas&nbsp;is the highest of any region, with 85% of Australia’s coral reefs within marine protected areas, including 25.5% in fully or highly protected areas.&nbsp;Marine zoning and enforcement control many, but not all threats.&nbsp;&nbsp;Since 1994, hard coral cover has declined from 35.2% to 26.0%, while algal cover has increased from 21.1% to 37.5%.&nbsp;The greatest cause of declines in hard coral cover on Australian coral reefs&nbsp;has been&nbsp;coral bleaching caused by anomalously high sea surface temperatures (SSTs) associated with climate change. Large-scale bleaching events have occurred in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2016, and 2017, and anomalously high SSTs have become an annual occurrence on the GBR.&nbsp;Also contributing to coral cover decline are&nbsp;tropical cyclones,&nbsp;periodic outbreaks of the coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish (CoTS), and nutrient pollution from agriculture – particularly for nearshore reefs. Continued emphasis on reducing local threats and promoting the resilience of Australia’s coral reefs is critical to preserving these treasures.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;For more detail on the Australia’s coral reefs and its subregions see the GCRMN global report&nbsp;<a href=\"https://gcrmn.net/2020-report/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">Status of&nbsp;Coral Reefs of the World: 2020</a>,&nbsp;or the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) Long-term Reef Monitoring Program -&nbsp;<a href=\"https://www.aims.gov.au/reef-monitoring/gbr-condition-summary-2019-2020\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">Annual Summary Report for the GBR 2019/20</a>.&nbsp;"

This region includes all of Australia’s coral reefs – those off the Australian continent (including the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia) as well as those off Cocos-Keeling, Christmas Island, Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands.  

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Coral Reefs: Australia

Importance, status and outlook for coral reefs in Australia

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