Reef may get heritage listing nomination

The possible nomination of Ningaloo Reef as a world heritage site has been welcomed
by researchers using it to predict the effect of climate change on coral reefs.
A Senate hearing in Canberra has been told the federal and West Australian
governments are discussing boundaries for the proposed site, about 100km south of
Exmouth, and that a nomination is likely by February next year.
That means international authorities will consider whether to designate the reef as
World Heritage.
Emily Twiggs, an applied geology researcher at Perth's Curtin University, said
Ningaloo was already well known as one of the world's best coral reef
"laboratories".
Supported by WA's Marine Science Institution (WAMSI), Ms Twiggs and her Curtin
University supervisor, Associate Professor Lindsay Collins, have spent several years
studying reef core samples of the eastern Ningaloo Reef within the Exmouth Gulf.
The samples, which have given them a history of the reef's growth over several
thousand years, are being used to discover how the reef has responded to
environmental change, including sea-level fluctuations, coastal flooding and cyclone
activity.
The reef's isolation, pristine waters and untouched corals made it the ideal place
to monitor the response of coral reefs to climate change, Ms Twiggs said.
"Reefs in general and the Ningaloo in particular, provide an excellent barometer
with which we can monitor a changing environment," she said.
"Corals can be quite resilient to environmental change. When sea levels rise or
fall, corals can often alter their growth patterns to respond.
"But when change is really rapid, or there are multiple factors, then there is the
potential for entire reefs to die out.
"Because it is largely untouched by human activity, the Ningaloo Reef is one of the
better coral reefs to study the impact of climate change.
"This is especially true when compared with examples like the Great Barrier Reef in
Queensland, which has been largely impacted by human activity."
Ms Twiggs said the greatest threats to coral reefs because of climate change were
rapid increases in sea level, increased ocean acidity, a significant rise in sea
surface temperature and more intense storm activity.
"If current estimates on climate change are correct, all four of these factors are
likely to occur together," she said.
"This would likely place reefs such as the Ningaloo at risk."