Guardian: The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is both a national marine park and a World Heritage Area. But next to the reef, a catchment of 400,000km2 is almost completely developed for agriculture, predominantly beef grazing and sugarcane, horticulture, cotton and grains cropping. How does this development affect the integrity of the reef?
It is well recognised that pollutant runoff (particularly sediment, nutrients and pesticides) from agriculture to the GBR is causing serious widespread damage to the reef's...