In addition to the deaths and staggering property damage from the floods in Northeast Australia the Great Barrier Reef could be threatened. The brown fresh water that has flooded the reef contains the leftover nutrients, sediment, and pesticides via agricultural run-off; also there is a plethora of trace metals from flooded mines. These contaminants in the coral's normally-salt water environments will undoubtedly effect it and it's inhabitants' ability to survive in a strongly negative way, threatening to wipe out much of the population.
The floods were caused by the La Niña event, which was described by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology as "very strong" in 2010. The bureau even predicted the devastating floods in June 2010 when they stated that La Niña would most likely greatly affect Australia within the year.
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