Reef monitoring program shows
northern section has lost half of its coral cover
Tue 5 Jun 2018 07.08 BSTLast
modified on Tue 5 Jun 2018 07.09 BST
A steep decline in coral cover
right across the Great Barrier Reef is a phenomenon that “has not been observed
in the historical record”, a new report by the Australian Institute of Marine
Science says.
The institute, Australia’s government-backed marine research agency, periodically releases results of a long-term reef monitoring program. Each reef along the Queensland coast is visited by researchers every two years to assess its condition and coral cover.
The latest results, released on Tuesday, detail how major bleaching events in 2016 and 2017 have impacted on different sections of the reef. AIMS said it had no previous record of bleaching events occurring in successive years.
The institute, Australia’s government-backed marine research agency, periodically releases results of a long-term reef monitoring program. Each reef along the Queensland coast is visited by researchers every two years to assess its condition and coral cover.
The latest results, released on Tuesday, detail how major bleaching events in 2016 and 2017 have impacted on different sections of the reef. AIMS said it had no previous record of bleaching events occurring in successive years.
“Over the 30-plus years of
monitoring by AIMS, Great Barrier
Reef reefs have shown their ability to recover after disturbances, but
such ‘resilience’ clearly has limits,” the report says.
“The predicted consequences of climate change
include more powerful storms and more frequent and more intense bleaching
events.
“More intense disturbances mean
greater damage to reefs, so recovery must take longer if the growth rate
remains the same. At the same time, the intervals between acute disturbance
events are decreasing and chronic stresses such as high turbidity and high
ocean temperatures can slow rates of recovery.”
No comments:
Post a Comment
You only need to enter your comment once! Comments will appear once they have been moderated. This is so as to stop the would-be comedian who has been spamming the comments here with inane and often offensive remarks. You know who you are!