Marine ecosystems under unesco protection

1.

MARINE ECOSYSTEMS
UNDER UNESCO
PROTECTION
Piletskaya Anastasia

2.

Coral reefs
• Coral reefs are shallow underwater habitats found in tropical waters
• Sometimes called rainforests of the sea, they form some of Earth's most diverse ecosystems.
• While coral reefs sustain about 25% of the ocean’s marine life, these wondrous ecosystems
cover only 0.2% of the earth’s surface

3.

Coral reefs
Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System
Great Australian Barrier Reef
the world’s most extensive coral
reef ecosystem
covers an area of 348,000
square kilometers
composed of over 2,900
individual reefs and 900 islands
stretches for over 2,300
kilometers
Corals of some 350 species live
here
the largest barrier reef in the Northern hemisphere
The uniqueness of the Belize Barrier reef lies in the fact
that this territory is composed of karst rocks and for
many millennia has been drained several times and then
again flooded by seawaters. This feature has provided
inimitable variety of coral types combined with a
specific marine landscape.
The most widely known karst landform on the site is the
Big Blue Hole. Initially, the Blue Hole was a limestone
cave that started to form about 150,000 years ago.

4.

5.

Shark Bay: three unique features
1) There is the largest sea grass assemblage in the world with an
area of 4800 square kilometers, thriving for the past 5000 years.
Shark Bay contains the largest number of seaweed species ever
recorded in a single location.
2) Sea grasses are the backbone of the food chain in shark Bay,
providing a home and shelter for various marine species and attracting
a population of dugongs: it is home to about 10,000 dugongs ("sea
cows"), accounting for about 12.5% of the world's population
In addition to dugongs, it is home to Indo-Pacific
bottlenose dolphins, green and loggerhead sea turtles,
giant oceanic manta rays, and of course sharks. Whale
shark is the biggest fish in the world that is feeding on
plankton and reaching 60 feet long.
3) Stromatolites – colonies of algae forming hard, dome-shaped deposits,
which represent the oldest form of life on Earth and are comparable to living
fossils. Analogous structures dominated marine ecosystems for more than
3,000 million years.

6.

The Phoenix Island Protected Area
• 408,250 square
kilometers
• an average depth of
more than 4,500 meters
and a maximum depth of
over 6,000 meters

7.

Eastern tropical Pacific corridor
UNESCO sites:
- Malpelo Fauna and
Flora Sanctuary
- Galápagos Islands
- Coiba National Park
and its Special Zone
of Marine Protection

8.

The Sundarbans
• The Sundarbans is a mangrove area in the delta formed by the confluence of the
Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna Rivers in the Bay of Bengal.
• The Sundarbans is of universal importance for globally endangered species
including the Royal Bengal Tiger, Ganges and Irawadi dolphins, estuarine
crocodiles and the critically endangered endemic river terrapin.

9.

Wadden Sea
• The Wadden Sea is the largest unbroken system of intertidal sand and mud flats
in the world. It lies between the coast of northwestern continental Europe and
the range of low-lying Frisian Islands.
• The site covers the Dutch Wadden Sea Conservation Area, the German Wadden
Sea National Parks of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, and most of the
Danish Wadden Sea maritime conservation area.

10.

Natural System of Wrangel Island Reserve
• Inscribed in 2004, it boasts the
world’s largest population of Pacific
walrus, with up to 100,000 animals
congregating in the island’s
rookeries. Research suggests that
some humpback whales from the
Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaino in
Mexico migrate all the way to the
waters around Wrangel Island for
summer feeding, highlighting the
connections between the Arctic
Ocean and World Heritage sites in
lower latitudes.