Academic Reading
The Great Barrier Reef
AStretching for over 2,300 kilometres off the coast of Australia, the Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef system on Earth and can even be seen from space. It is not a single reef but a vast network of thousands of individual reefs and hundreds of islands, built by tiny animals called coral polyps.
BThe reef supports an astonishing variety of life, including fish, turtles and molluscs. In recent decades, however, it has come under threat from warming seas, which cause the coral to expel the colourful algae living inside it and turn white — a process known as bleaching.