Maintaining critical ecosystem functions is of vital importance to the health and resilience of the Reef’s habitats and ecological communities.772 Ecosystem functioning can be considered in terms of a suite of complementary and interconnected ecological processes.772
Ten ecological processes are graded in terms of changes over the past 5 years due to human activities and consequential effects on ecosystem function. Primary production remains in very good condition, and 5 other processes (microbial processes, particle feeding, herbivory, competition and connectivity) remain in good condition. Four processes (predation, recruitment, symbiosis and reef building) continue to be graded as poor.
The full assessment summary is in Section 3.7.3.
References