Scientific heritage value is not well defined. However, in general terms it is a place’s potential to yield information that will contribute to the scientific understanding of the place’s natural history.1169 When coupled with the meaning of heritage being ‘our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations’,1170 the scientific heritage value of the Reef encompasses human knowledge of the land and sea.
The history of the Great Barrier Reef dates back to the initiation of reef growth in the Region approximately 450,000 to 670,000 years ago.1083,1171 Several active periods of reef growth occurred, with the bulk of the present-day Reef being laid down between 5500 and 8500 years ago.884 Through the Reef’s Indigenous history, knowledge is preserved in stories and songlines that have been passed down through generations (Section 4.3). Cultural memories recall periods of sea level change,76 which are likely to date from at least 10,000 years ago.1123 Traditional Owner knowledge of the land and sea, therefore, pre-dates accretion of the contemporary Reef. The long-term nature of various biological monitoring programs and oceanographic observation platforms within the Region add significant value to science by the data they provide.
The Reef’s prominence through long-term studies and scientific literature is strong
Reef scientific heritage is preserved at the Queensland Museum in the form of coral archives, with the world’s largest collection of field photographs, coral skeletons and vouchered tissue samples. The Coral Bank project is creating a curated genomic and taxonomic repository to inform understanding and conservation of the Great Barrier Reef.1172 Improvements in scientific knowledge continue to advance through participation and training in field scientific surveys.58 Less clear is whether there have been recent changes in the extent to which the living history of science on the Reef is being captured, catalogued and communicated.
In the twenty-first century, the marine science research and management community provides a measure of Australia’s focus on transmitting the scientific heritage value of the Region to future generations. Scientific understandings learnt from the Great Barrier Reef also improves the scientific heritage value of the Region in terms of its benefit for other marine properties worldwide and assists their management. The Reef’s prominence through long-term studies and scientific literature is strong. Between 2019 and late 2023, at least 680 scientific journal articles specific to the Great Barrier Reef have been published.1173 The Reef’s scientific heritage value is in good condition and has continued to improve.