Booktopia has been placed into Voluntary Administration. Orders have been temporarily suspended, whilst the process for the recapitalisation of Booktopia and/or sale of its business is completed, following which services may be re-established. All enquiries from creditors, including customers with outstanding gift cards and orders and placed prior to 3 July 2024, please visit https://www.mcgrathnicol.com/creditors/booktopia-group/
Add free shipping to your order with these great books
The Great Barrier Reef : An Environmental History - Ben Daley

The Great Barrier Reef

An Environmental History

By: Ben Daley

Paperback | 25 May 2017

Sorry, we are not able to source the book you are looking for right now.

We did a search for other books with a similar title, however there were no matches. You can try selecting from a similar category, click on the author's name, or use the search box above to find your book.

The Great Barrier Reef is located along the coast of Queensland in north-east Australia and is the world's largest coral reef ecosystem. Designated a World Heritage Area, it has been subject to increasing pressures from tourism, fishing, pollution and climate change, and is now protected as a marine park. This book provides an original account of the environmental history of the Great Barrier Reef, based on extensive archival and oral history research. 

It documents and explains the main human impacts on the Great Barrier Reef since European settlement in the region, focusing particularly on the century from 1860 to 1960 which has not previously been fully documented, yet which was a period of unprecedented exploitation of the ecosystem and its resources. The book describes the main changes in coral reefs, islands and marine wildlife that resulted from those impacts. 

In more recent decades, human impacts on the Great Barrier Reef have spread, accelerated and intensified, with implications for current management and conservation practices. There is now better scientific understanding of the threats faced by the ecosystem. Yet these modern challenges occur against a background of historical levels of exploitation that is little-known, and that has reduced the ecosystem's resilience. The author provides a compelling narrative of how one of the world's most iconic and vulnerable ecosystems has been exploited and degraded, but also how some early conservation practices emerged.

Industry Reviews

"Through a meticulous analysis of archival materials, official sources, publications, photographs and oral history evidence, this book documents for the first time how the colonisation of Queensland and the resultant growth of primary industries have contributed to the decline of the Great Barrier Reef... It provides important historical evidence that demonstrates that the detrimental impacts of increased human population, urban development and agricultural expansion in the Great Barrier Reef catchment area will have to be ameliorated to increase the resilience of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area to the ravages of climate change." - From the Foreword by Professor Helene Marsh, Distinguished Professor of Environmental Science, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia

"The well-written text is the result of his doctoral dissertation work. It will speak to anyone interested in the potential impact of human land use, climate change, and environmental degradation on one of Earth's remaining treasured ecosystems. Part of the "Earthscan Oceans" series. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic, general, and professional library collections." - CHOICE, L. S. Rigg, Northern Illinois University

More in Sea Life & The Seashore

Reefs : The Oceans' Underwater Ecosystems - Peter Mavrikis

FREE SHIPPING

Sharks and Underwater Predators : Animals - Tom Jackson

FREE SHIPPING

In the Name of Sharks - Francois Sarano

RRP $32.95

$30.25

Many Things Under a Rock : The Mysteries of Octopuses - David Scheel
A Photographic Guide to Seashore Life of Australia - Keith Davey
The Killer Whale Journals : Our Love and Fear of Orcas - Hanne Strager
Many Things Under a Rock : The Mysteries of Octopuses - David Scheel
Ocean Drifters : a Secret World Beneath the Waves - KIRBY RICHARD
The World's Oceans : Geography, History, and Environment - Rainer F. Buschmann
A Natural History of Sea Serpents - Adrian Shine