According to reports published in the British daily Guardian, Environmentalists have predicted a third major coral bleaching event in five years for the world’s largest coral reef system, Great Barrier Reef. This would intensify if ocean temperatures continue to rise in the next two weeks, as per scientists working in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.
Crux of the Matter
Marine Animals Need to Bleach Too? When corals are stressed by changes in conditions such as temperature, light, or nutrients, they expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissues, causing them to turn completely white. This is called coral bleaching. Corals can survive a bleaching event, but they are subject to mortality. Back-to-back bleaching events in 2016 and 2017 caused the U.S. to lose half of its coral reefs in the Caribbean. Any reef that is called a “barrier” reef gets its name because it protects the shallow waters along the shore from the open sea. That protection promotes the survival of many types of sea plant and animal life by forming a community of life that thrives in one location. It is speculated that 70 to 90 percent of coral reefs will disappear over the next 20 years as a result of climate change and pollution.
What Do Recent Reports Say? Marine Researchers have already found “significant bleaching” at three reefs in the far north. The reefs there were relatively protected from most human activity, but not from the rising of ocean temperatures caused by the climate crisis. According to Professor Terry Hughes, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, temperatures across the reef are around two to three degrees Celsius above normal until mid-March this year.
POA of Reef Protectors The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has placed the reef on Alert Level 1 for the next 7 days. Meanwhile, Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison is being criticized for his pro-coal policies and his seeming dismissal of climate concerns in this wildfire season. The alarmed scientific community is attempting to curb this decline by transplanting live corals grown in labs to dying reefs. They propose new, young corals will boost the reef´s recovery and bring it back to a healthy state.
Based on current heat stress, temperature trends, and our Four-Month Bleaching Outlook model, Coral Reef Watch is expecting widespread bleaching conditions across the GBR in the coming weeks. So far, it looks like it may not be as intense as 2016 or 2017. Fingers crossed! pic.twitter.com/8YDMlL7bnB — Coral Reef Watch (@CoralReefWatch) February 20, 2020
Curiopedia
The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,300 kilometres over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres. It is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, Australia and can be seen from outer space and is the world’s biggest single structure made by living organisms. This reef structure is composed of and built by billions of tiny organisms, known as coral polyps. It supports a wide diversity of life and was selected as a World Heritage Site in 1981.
CNN labelled it one of the seven natural wonders of the world. The Queensland National Trust named it a state icon of Queensland.A large part of the reef is protected by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which helps to limit the impact of human use, such as fishing and tourism. Other environmental pressures on the reef and its ecosystem include runoff, climate change accompanied by mass coral bleaching, dumping of dredging sludge and cyclic population outbreaks of the crown-of-thorns starfish. More Info
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