Coral at Great Barrier Reef suffering worst ever bleaching ... and it’s only just the start
The Great Barrier Reef, the largest coral structure on Earth, is suffering from what may be its worst bleaching event ever recorded. But according to new research, future bleaching events could be even worse and may “disable” a natural protection mechanism of the reef’s corals – leaving them more defenceless against warmer seas.
The new study, published on Thursday in Science, was led by Tracy Ainsworth of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, along with colleagues from other Australian universities and the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
The researchers used satellite records of past ocean temperatures affecting the reef, in combination with genetic studies of coral, to measure how they respond to different types of “thermal stress” events, in which temperatures rise beyond what the organisms are used to.
“The big thing we’re able to discover is that there is a mechanism that has been operating in the Great Barrier Reef that has protected the corals,” says Mark Eakin, one of the study’s authors and head of NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch. “The problem, though, is that in the future, as temperatures warm, that’s no longer going to happen.”