Climate Change Is Destroying The Corals On The Great Barrier Reef


The Great Barrier Reef, one of the seven wonders of the natural world, is at its greatest risk ever of disappearing into the annals of man-made disasters, due to mass coral bleaching caused by climate change.

“Human-caused climate change” is causing an “utter tragedy” to one of the world's largest coral reef systems, according to two Australian researchers. The current bout of coral bleaching on the Reef, “the third in just five years”, is the “most severe and the most widespread” ever.

“Coral bleaching at regional scales is caused by spikes in sea temperatures during unusually hot summers,” say Terry Hughes and Morgan Pratchett. Both are professors at James Cook University’s research centre for coral reef studies in tropical northeastern Australia. “We surveyed 1,036 reefs from the air during the last two weeks in March, to measure the extent and severity of coral bleaching throughout the Barrier Reef region.”

The results are “not a pretty picture”. Mass bleaching has hit the entire 2,300 kilometre (1,430 miles) reef system for the first time, across “the northern, central and now large parts of the southern sectors.” That’s damage extending across the combined area of the United Kingdom, Holland and Switzerland.

Rising sea temperatures linked to climate change have already killed off large areas of coral in the reef, which Queensland tourism says stretches “from the tip of Cape York in the north to Bundaberg in the south.” Composed of 3,000 separate reefs and 900 islands, the UNESCO gem is home to 1,500 fish species, myriad marine life, and over 200 types of birds.

Global bleaching events of enormous scale

“The scale of bleaching is enormous during global bleaching events,” according to Professor Hughes, “the situation brings me to despair.” The first recorded mass bleaching along the Reef struck in 1998, at the time the hottest year on record. Then again in 2002, 2016 and 2017, as more temperature records were broken. The latest follows February’s unusually hot summer–resulting in the highest ever sea surface temperatures recorded on the Reef since controls began in 1900.

The impact of climate change on the ocean is dramatically affecting coral reef ecosystems worldwide according to Australia’s Climate Council, which is made up of scientists, renewable energy and policy experts.

What The U.S. National Ocean Service Says

“Warmer water temperatures can result in coral bleaching,” notes the NOAA. “When water is too warm, corals will expel the algae (zooxanthellae) living in their tissues causing the coral to turn completely white ... When a coral bleaches, it is not dead. Corals can survive a bleaching event, but they are under more stress and are subject to mortality.”

For Professor Pratchett, “bleaching isn’t necessarily fatal, and affects some species more than others. ... A pale or lightly bleached coral typically regains its colour within a few weeks or months and survives,” he says. Severe bleaching however means many corals die. That was the case in 2016 when more than half of the shallow-water corals in the northern region of the Reef vanished.

Researchers will have to wait until later in the year to go back underwater to assess the losses of corals from the reef’s latest bleaching event. “As summers grow hotter and hotter, we no longer need an El Niño event to trigger mass bleaching at the scale of the Great Barrier Reef,” Professor Hughes says.

Beyond Australia, global disaster

Professor Hughes emphasises the alarming speed at which the bleaching incidents were occurring globally. “We’re going to see more of them in future, tragically, and the only way to secure a future for the world’s coral reefs is to deal with greenhouse gas emissions.

“About 70% of the world’s coral reefs now undergo these major bleaching events all at the same time. So it’s a problem not just for Australia but for many countries including those whose livelihoods depend much more on the resources provided by coral reefs ... primarily in small, poor, rapidly developing countries.”

Is The Reef At Risk Of Losing Its Natural Wonder?


“The Great Barrier Reef is worth an estimated $4 billion a year in tourism revenue for the Australian economy,” SBS reports, “but is at risk of losing its coveted world heritage status because warmer oceans brought about by climate change have damaged its health.”

Last year the government’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, charged with protecting the fragile ecosystem, downgraded its long-term outlook for the reef’s survival to "very poor." The agency broke ranks with the Federal Government–who many accuse of being in climate change denial–by urging for the "fastest possible action" on greenhouse emissions, to save the world heritage marine wonder.


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