Chapter 01: Introduction to the Great Barrier Reef and climate change

Abstract

The Great Barrier Reef is renowned internationally for its ecological importance and the beauty of its seascapes and landscapes. These natural values also provide important ecosystem services, which underpin Australian $6.9 billion worth of economic activity and incalculable social values. In combination, the social-ecological system centred on the reef is extraordinary in its importance, and in its complexity. Understanding the vulnerability of such a large and intricate system to climate change is a particularly difficult challenge. A first step in meeting this challenge is to describe the general characteristics of the system and the environment in which they interact. Toward this end, this chapter introduces the Great Barrier Reef and the human systems that interact with it, providing a context for the detailed chapters that follow.