Management Concern: High     Adequacy of Information: Low

Summary extracts from Outlook Report 2009

• The rate of reef building may be beginning to slow.
• Although the processes of reef building and erosion are understood, the impact of changes to ocean acidification from climate change is uncertain.  There is currently no information about regional and local variability of oceanic pH on the Great Barrier Reef.
  
• Optimal reef building conditions occur where the water is shallow and clear, the currents are strong and the ocean pH is alkaline. The cumulative effects of poor water quality and climate change are not well understood.

What do we know?

Relevant pages from Outlook Online include:

• Vulnerability of reef-building corals on the Great Barrier Reef to climate change
  
• Declining coral calcification on the Great Barrier Reef
• Temperature, carbon dioxide and carbonate-ion concentrations reconstructed for the last 420,000 years.
  
• Methods of estimating reef carbonate production
  
• Coral reef growth rates
  
• Bioerosion
  
• Coral recruitment in the Great Barrier Reef
  
• Latitudinal patterns in recruitment 
  
• Ocean acidification
  
• Impacts of ocean acidification on coral reefs
  
• Impact of ocean acidification on corals
• Atmospheric CO₂ stabilisation and ocean acidification
• Hard coral calcification in the Great Barrier Reef
• Coral recruitment in the Great Barrier Reef
• Coral survival following bleaching
  

Existing policies and management actions

• Australian Government policy on climate change 
• Queensland Government climate change policies and strategies 
• Climate Change Action Plan 2007-2012

Future management requirements

• Future management requirements in this area are being guided by ongoing assessment of emerging research outcomes and issues identified by the Great Barrier Reef Outlook Report 2009.

Defined research questions

• What are the trends in calcification for all key reef building species (not just Porities)?
  
• Have the species responsible for most reef building changed?
  
• What will be the impact of ocean acidification on crustose coralline algae, and what will be the flow-on effect on reef ecosystems?

Related information

• Current Research and Monitoring