Biodiversity of coral reefs

Coral reefs support exceptionally diverse biological communities. Apart from the high number of coral species and other associated sessile animals coral reefs have the highest number of fish species found anywhere.

The Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA) was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1981. With a total size of almost 350,000 km2 the GBRWHA is the largest World Heritage Area. It includes approximately 2,900 coral reefs covering about 20,055 km2, 600 continental islands, 300 coral cays and a large inter-reefal lagoon. The high diversity of plants, animals, micro-organisms and ecosystems of the GBRWHA was a major component of the declaration of the Great Barrier Reef as World Heritage area .

Examples of the biodiversity of the GBRWHA are:

• many endemic species;
• 400 species of coral in 60 genera;
• foraminifera;
• echinoderms;
• crustaceans;
• polychaete worms;
• ascidians;
• over 4000 species of molluscs;
• 1500 species of fish;
• 6 species of sea turtle;
• whales and dolphins;
• sea birds with breeding colonies;
• land birds;
• fleshy algae;

as well as diverse ecosystems such as:

• coral communities;
• seagrass beds;
• mangrove communities;
• low wooded islands;
• sand cays.

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