Climate change is now recognised as the greatest long-term threat to the Great Barrier Reef. Climate projections for the Great Barrier Reef region show that sea and air temperatures will continue to increase, sea level is rising, the ocean is becoming more acidic, intense storms and rainfall will become more frequent and ocean currents will change.

The Great Barrier Reef is vulnerable to climate change

Leading experts assessed the vulnerability of Great Barrier Reef species, habitats and key processes to climate change. They found that many components of the ecosystem are at risk from climate change.

These impacts are likely to have far-reaching consequences for the industries and communities that depend on the Reef.

Climate change is already impacting the Great Barrier Reef

Mass coral bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef in 1998 and 2002 affected between 50 to 95 per cent of reefs and severely damaged up to five per cent of reefs.

Seabird nesting failures, where adults abandon their chicks in order to forage further for food, have been linked to unusually warm summer conditions on the Great Barrier Reef.

Protecting the Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has developed a five-year Climate Change Action Plan to implement strategies that will minimise the impacts of climate change on the Great Barrier Reef. A key strategy is to enhance the resilience of the Reef by protecting biodiversity, improving water quality and reducing other pressures.

View diagram showing predicted vulnerabilty [Adobe Acrobat Format 1500KB]

Climate Change and the Great Barrier Reef: A Vulnerability Assessment is a peer-reviewed publication compiled as a collaboration between the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and over 80 leading climate and tropical marine experts.

Chapter 24 [pdf 2414KB] of the book provides a summary of the findings of the vulnerabillity assessment for every component of the Great Barrier Reef ecosystem, from chapters 5 to 22. It also discussses the implications and adaptive capacity of industries and communities that depend on the Great Barrier Reef. Finally, it provides a suite of potential management responses to the threat of climate change for the Great Barrier Reef that could be applied to other tropical marine ecosystems faced with climate change.