Document WordNingaloo Reef and Cape Range peninsula
Les noms des biens figurent dans la langue dans laquelle les Etats parties les ont soumis.
Australie (Asie et pacifique) |
|
| Date de soumission : | 01/07/2008 |
| Critères: | (vii)(viii)(ix)(x) |
| Catégorie : | Naturel |
| Soumis par : | Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts |
| Etat, province ou région : | Western Australia |
| Coordonnées | S21 30 00 - 24 00 00 E113 30 00 - 114 30 00 |
| Ref.: | 5379 |
Description
From majestic whale sharks feeding on the rich resources of coral reefs to antique fossil corals sheltering ancient cave faunas, the structural unity of Western Australia's Ningaloo Reef and Cape Range peninsula is at the heart of the region's outstanding natural heritage significance.
Located on the west coast of Australia, the region experiences an arid, semi-desert to subtropical climate with variable summer and winter rainfall, unusual in a tropical reef setting. Ningaloo Reef is the largest reef of the western Australian coral reef system, the only major coral reef system on the west coast of any continent. The more than 200- kilometre-long central section of Ningaloo's nearly 300-kilometre extent forms the second longest contiguous stretch of reef in the world.
The principal geology of the area includes Miocene to Quatemary age alluvial, aeolian and marine sediments overlying Cretaceous limestone. Ningaloo Reef and Cape Range are part of an integrated limestone structure, consisting of a mosaic of interdependent ecosystems. Neogene wave-cut terraces (terrestrial and submarine) and fossil reefs fringe Cape Range, demonstrating large scale Quatemary uplift and evolution of the reef system, unsurpassed among coral reefs for displaying the interaction of history, physical environment and ecology.
The position of Ningaloo Reef and Cape Range in the Carnarvon bioregion - a transition zone between tropical and temperate biota - has resulted in diverse terrestrial and marine biological assemblages. Terrestrial habitat includes mangrove, interridal marine, sand ridge, alluvial plain, dune field and rocky limestone range, which together support up to 300 taxa of vascular plant species, 30 mammal species, 84 reptile species, 5 amphibians and approximately 200 bird species. Ningaloo Reef shelters more than 200 species of hermatypic corals, 500 fish species, over 600 mollusc species and more than 90 species of echinoderms. Ningaloo Reef also supports marine megafauna, including a significant dugong population, globally important marine turtle habitat for four species of marine turtle, several cetacean species and is internationally famous for its large annual congregations of whale sharks. Situated unusually close to the continental shelf, the nominated area includes an extraordinary cross-section of marine environments, spanning continental slope and shelf communities, fringing and barrier reefs, island reefs, bommies, lagoon and inshore ecosystems as well as coastal estuaries from the region's rare freshwater streams.
Adjacent to Ningaloo Reef, the limestone karst landscape of Cape Range has a remarkable density of more than 500 caves and other karst features, supporting globally outstanding fauna. The subterranean ecosystem provides critical habitat for at least 38 species from 28 families and 30 genera (10 endemic), and there are also several species of opportunists capable of living outside the cave environment. Bundera Sinkhole, an anchialine cenote in the range's southern hinterland, supports one of only five remipede crustacean communities in the world. The others are all in the northern hemisphere and outside the Indo-Pacific region.
The modern character of the coral reef and subterranean ecosystems is intimately linked to the geological past. Over 150 million years ago on the shores of the ancient Tethys Sea before the break-up of the supercontinent Pangaea, the ancestors of the region's distinctive subterranean aquatic fauna were mostly free-swimming marine animals. The inexorable movement of continental plates divided these Tethyan populations from each other and carried them to their present latitudes. This movement, driven by forces deep beneath the crust, was accompanied by the climate change that led to the region's present arid character as Australia moved further north away from Antarctica over the last 25 million years. Tropical rainforest remnants retreated to the north east of Australia, leaving the Cape Range rainforest invertebratea, to evolve underground, in isolation. Folding raised the prehistoric sea floor with its fossil coral reefs to form the present-day Cape Range, which provides the structural framework for this unique anchialine ecosystem.
Valeur universelle exceptionnelle
Justification de la Valeur Universelle Exceptionelle
Ningaloo Reef and Cape Range are instantly recognisable as a unique place in the world. The marine expression of the system contains a continuous suite of marine and littoral environments from continental shelf and slope ecologies through fringing and barrier reef, lagoon, inshore, island and beach. Part of western Australia's extensive and unusual reef system, Ningaloo Reef itself contains one of the best developed fringing reefs in the world, a continuous series of more than 200 kilometres of spectacular wave-swept ramparts. Extending nearly 300 kilometres north from the Tropic of Capricorn, the reef owes its existence to the occurrence of the warm Leeuwin current, which facilitates the occurrence of tropical species at temperate latitudes. Cape Range is the terrestrial expression of the structure: an evolutionary laboratory, the Tertiary orogenic karst preserves a rich density of features, built from the skeletons of ancient reefs which gradually emerged from under the sea. These fossil reefs preserve millions of years of reef evolution and provide habitat for the region's remarkable subterranean fauna.
Satements of authenticity and/or integrity
Ningaloo Reef and the Cape Range peninsula karst system form an integraied limestone structure. The modern Ningaloo Reef, Cape Range karst, and the wave-cut terraces, limestone plains and Pleistocene reef sediments demonstrate a mutual interdependence over time, harmonising the region's present ecosystem functions with its evolutionary history.
Ningaloo Reef is among few continental or high island reefs globally that escape anthropogenic pressure from land- based sources of siltation and other pollutants. This is due to both its arid hinterland of marine-derived sediments with low organic matter, and the absence of a large adjacent resident human population. The reef is not subject to the widespread impacts of coral bleaching and crown-of-thorns sea-star invasions seen elsewhere in the Indo- Pacific.
The waters adjacent to the reef are seasonally important for whale sharks, which are afforded total protection from fishing before migrating to countries to the north. The recent (2005) creation of additional marine sanctuaries in the Ningaloo Marine Park provides significant extra protection.
As the area is scarcely populated, the majority of the known karst features in the Cape Range and coastal plain are not under direct anthropogenic pressure. Comprehensive management plans are in place for both Ningaloo Marine Park and Cape Kange National Park and an encompassing legislative framework at both state and Federal level provides a model framework for the protection of the values of the property.
Comparison with other similar properties
Ningaloo Reef and Cape Range share attributes with some other World Heritage properties, but none is comparable when all attributes including environmental settings are considered collectively. Among Australia's marine World Heritages sites, the Great Barrier Reef, Lord Howe Island and Shark Bay have individual features that compare with Ningaloo Reef and Cape Range. However at none of these sites is there a co-occurrence of fringing reefs, adjacent karsts and anchialine systems, forming a geologically and biologically integrated limestone structure. It is also atypical among tropical reefs for its location on a narrow continental shelf, and for its arid climate. In the case of the Great Barrier Reef even dividing it into eight sections of equivalent length to Ningaloo Reef do not reveal any sections that could be considered similar except at the most superficial level '(e.g. presence of coral reefs). Ningaloo's more than 200 kilometre stretch of contiguous fringing reef is unparalleled in the world. Lord Howe Island's small size and volcanic oceanic location set it apart. In the case of Shark Bay, and notwithstanding the similarity of its arid setting, there are small coral communities but no coral reefs, in a carbonate landscape with no karst. Together with Shark Bay, Ningaloo Reef and Cape Range provide a complementary set of arid coastal environments along the west coast of Australia that accentuates the interdependence of marine and terrestrial ecosystems.
Internationally, Ningaloo Reef and Cape Range stands out from other World Heritage marine sites with karst features for the coherence and structural integrity of its coral reef and limestone system and for its arid climate. For example, while the subtropical Belize Barrier Reef System is comparable to Ningaloo Reef in that its reefs are spread over a similar distance, Belize's reef system is a disjunct series of patch reefs, rather than a contiguous barrier reef system. Furthermore, the Belize reefs do not demonstrate the species richness of Ningaloo Reef. Desembarco del Granma National Park in Cuba is considered representative of semi-arid ecosystems, but it lacks an extensive reef system. In Mexico, Sian Ka'an and adjacent areas of the Yucatan Peninsula have, in common with Ningaloo Reef and Cape Range, both reefs and limestone karst with globally important anchialine fauna. The vast Yucatan Peninsula is a flat limestone plain on which there is no surface drainage, but an extensive network of submerged cave systems connected to the sea. However, the area receives four to six times the average rainfall of Ningaloo Reef and Cape Range, and much of the terrestrial part of the Sian Ka'an reserve is flooded. Their dramatically different landscapes give prominence to synergies between the two sites which, while separated by two oceans, share an evolutionary past brought into relief by their internationally renowned anchialine faunas. These international sites are all situated in the Caribbean, whose coral reef communities share no species of coral reef taxa with Indo-Pacific coral reefs such as Ningaloo Reef, due to isolation since the closure of the Central American Seaway three million years ago.
Of sites not currently on the World Heritage List, the Red Sea in the Middle East, and the Tuléar Reef Complex in South West Madagascar are most comparable to Ningaloo Reef and Cape Range in their arid climate and reef structure. However, the Red Sea's fringing reefs are generally narrow and steep, and provide no equivalent to the more than 200 kilometre continuous series of fringing and barrier reef at Ningaloo. Furthermore, much of what has previously been described as 'fringing reef in the southern Red Sea has been shown instead to be macroalgal reefs. The physical environments of the Red Sea and Ningaloo Reef are also markedly different. The enclosed reef waters of the Red Sea are exposed to high salinity due to the absence of rivers and high evaporation rates associated with the dry desert climate. By contrast, Ningaloo Reef is not exposed to high salinity as it is flushed each day by ocean waters.
The position of both Ningaloo Reef and the Tuléar Reef Complex on the edge of deep water, close to the coast and fronting a major ocean fetch of waves and swell is reflected in the similar transverse zonation of morphological features and benthic communities at both sites. However in contrast to Ningaloo Reef the Tuléar Reef Complex faces pressures from agriculture, deforestation, urban and harbour pollution, and overexploitation of marine resources. This has resulted in degradation of the reef in the form of coral mortality and necrosis, excessive proliferation of brown algae, sea urchin infestation, increased water turbidity, and reduction of the species richness, density, and the size of the coral fish populations - pressures which are not present at Ningaloo Reef.
Ningaloo Reef and Cape Range tell a story about the evolution of life since the Mesozoic era that is without equal in the world. The series of rare wave-cut submarine and terrestrial terraces in juxtaposition with the living Ningaloo Reef provides a chronological record of the evolution of reef fauna over the last 125,000 years, culminating in the living reef community. This concurrence of ancient reefs and living is unmatched at other World Heritage listed coral reef properties. In addition, the cave fauna of Cape Range reflects a fundamental part of the complex story of Gondwanan fragmentation, demonstrating the biogeographic shift from pandemism to endemism over the past 180 million years. In Australia, the World Heritage listed Australian Fossil Mammal Sites tells a story of climate change and increasing aridity in Australia, which is complementary to that told by Cape Range's anchialine and terrestrial ecosystem, but its palaeontological focus is restricted to a single clade. The Hamelin Pool stromatolites at Shark Bay also demonstrate an important evolutionary case study, but one that covers a different period in the earth's history, and which lacks the epic biogeographic focus of the Cape Range story. The Devonian fish fossils at Miguasha in Canada represent the evolution of Devonian fish into the first four-legged, air-breathing terrestrial vertebrates, the tetrapods. As with the Australian Fossil Mammal Sites, it is an evolutionary story restricted to a single clade and geological period. Like the Cape Range, the Galapagos Islands represents an evolutionary laboratory. The Galapagos faunas represent the paradigm shift which led to the widespread acceptance of evolutionary theory. However, the Galapagos tell a story of island biogeography rather than the grand narrative of the global rearrangement of continents represented by the Cape Range fauna. There is no comparison at any of these sites with the global scale of the Cape Range story.