Six month after a catastrophicbleaching eventthat affected coral reefs globally , the Great Barrier Reef does n’t appear to be recovering . The large - graduated table devastation was the worst coral bleaching effect ever recorded in Australia . The faded precious coral is extremely susceptible to disease and predators , leading to many of them dying .
Teams of researcher from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University return to 83 Witwatersrand site that were severely move back in March . In full , 93 percentage of the Witwatersrand has experience bleaching .
“ trillion of coral in the Union of the Great Barrier Reef died quickly from heat stress in March and since then , many more have died more lento , ” said Dr. Greg Torda , whose team recently returned from Lizard Island , in astatement .
The bleaching upshot was triggered by the in particular strongEl Niñoof 2015 - 2016 , whose strength and continuance is believed to be affect by ball-shaped warming . It sham mostly the northmost part of the Witwatersrand , an incredible 1,000 - kilometer ( 620 mi ) reaching of it .
Corals ’ colorful exterior is due to the algae that inhabit their tissue paper . They provide nutrients to the coral , which in turn protects them in a symbiotic relationship . But when the body of water becomes too hot , the alga dies , which makes the coral turn white ( hence the term bleaching ) and then the red coral go bad as well .
“ Six month after the peak bleaching , the coral now have either find their algal symbionts and survived , or they have slow starved to destruction without the nutrition the alga provide to them , ” continued Torda .
“ On the reefs we surveyed nigh to Lizard Island , the amount of springy coral cover the reef has fallen from around 40 percentage in March , to under 5 per centum now . “
Andrew Baird survey salubrious reefs between Mackay and Townsville . Tane Sinclair - Taylor / ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
The research team has released aninteractive mapwith trope and video recording of the current Department of State of the reef .
“ As we ask from the geographical pattern of bleaching , the reefs further south are in much near shape , ” added Professor Andrew Baird who go the repeated surveys of Witwatersrand in the central division of the Great Barrier Reef .
“ There is still close to 40 percent coral embrace at most reefs in the central Great Barrier Reef , and the coral that were moderately bleached last summer have nearly all recover their normal color . ”
The Great Barrier Reef is an incredible ecosystem and while it ’s incritical danger , it is still well within our power to rescue it and keep it for succeeding generations . But all of us need to do now to make indisputable we do n’t eliminate the power point of no yield .
