Great Barrier Reef (GBR; Hình 1) mở rộng khoảng km dọc theo bờ biển phía đông của Australia, từ phía bắc của Fraser Island ở phía nam (25 ° S) bờ biển Papua New Guinea ở phía Bắc (9,2 ° S). Nó không phải là một rào cản liên tục. Thay vào đó nó là một ma trận của hơn rạn san hô cá nhân (hoạt hình 1) khác nhau, kích thước từ 100 0,01 km2. Reefal vùng nước liên hình thành kênh bao quanh các rạn san hô, và các kênh có thể được vài trăm mét đến hàng chục km rộng | 2 Physics-Biology Links in the Great Barrier Reef Eric Wolanski CONTENTS Land Mangroves and Fringing Ecosystem INTRODUCTION The Great Barrier Reef GBR Figure 1 extends approximately 2600 km along the eastern coast of Australia from just north of Fraser Island in the south 25 S to the coast of Papua New Guinea in the north S . It is not a continuous barrier. Instead it is a matrix of more than 2800 individual reefs Animation 1 ranging in size from 100 to km2. Inter-reefal waters form channels which surround the reefs and these channels can be several hundreds of metres to tens of kilometres wide. The assemblage of reefs and inter-reefal waters is called the GBR matrix. This matrix is located on the continental shelf. The shelf is impacted by runoff from Queensland rivers. The coast is rugged with numerous bays protected by headlands. Mangrove swamps are common in these bays as well as along tidal estuaries. To the east the shelf faces the Coral Sea with depths at points exceeding 4000 m. The shelf is generally shallow with depth at the shelf break seldom exceeding 100 m. Much of the GBR lagoon . the channel between the mainland and the mid-shelf reefs is less than 50 m in depth. The reefs in all regions vary in shape from kidney-shaped with a lagoon . Bowden Reef shown in Figure 2 to flat platforms without a lagoon. The windward reef slope is usually very steep. At the lee side of reefs and in their lagoons there are commonly numerous coral outcrops reaching all the way to the surface. In some areas the reefs form ribbons they are elongated several kilometers long and typically 1 km wide separated by narrow passages typically 40 m deep. On the shelf next to these reefs extensive meadows of the alga Halimeda are found forming banks 7 2001 by CRC Press LLC 8 Oceanographic Processes of Coral Reefs rising 10 to 20 m above the surrounding seafloor. .
