Will the Great Barrier Reef disappear in a decade?

As of 2012, more than half of the corals on the Great Barrier Reef have disappeared. In addition, scientists predict that at the current rate of disappearance, the size of the Great Barrier Reef will be reduced by half by 2022, and biological life will be lost. Diverse environment.

So the Great Barrier Reef will not disappear completely in more than ten years, but if protection is not continued, the area will decrease sharply.

To understand why corals disappear, we first need to understand how corals grow.

What we usually see are coral reefs, which are carbonate skeletons that are continuously secreted and accumulated during the growth of coral polyps and algae. After thousands of years of precipitation, coral reefs are finally formed.

The reason why coral polyps form calcareous skeletons is that coral polyps and a large number of algae: zooxanthellae, mutually beneficial growth, coral provides a habitat for zooxanthellae; zooxanthellae use the metabolites of coral polyps for photosynthesis Function, synthesize organic matter for the growth of coral polyps, accelerate organic carbon cycle and calcium ion precipitation to form coral skeleton. In addition, some organic matter is secreted outside the zooxanthellae to provide nutrients for other organisms such as zooplankton.