https://www.yahoo.com/news/large-parts-barrier-reef-dead-20-years-scientists-030028189.html
[image gallery with on-line article]
Large parts of Great Barrier Reef 'dead in 20 years'
AFP
April 29, 2016
Sydney (AFP) - Large parts of Australia's Great Barrier Reef could be
dead within 20 years as climate change drives mass coral bleaching,
scientists warned Friday.
The World Heritage-listed reef is currently suffering its worst
bleaching in recorded history with 93 percent of corals affected due to
warming sea temperatures.
Experts from the government-backed ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate
System Science said in a study that if greenhouse gases keep rising,
similar events will be the new normal, occurring every two years by the
mid-2030s.
Given reefs need some 15 years to completely recover from bleaching of
this magnitude, the centre said "we are likely to lose large parts of
the Great Barrier Reef in just a couple of decades".
Researchers found climate change had added 1.0 degree Celsius (1.8
degrees Fahrenheit) of warming to the ocean temperatures off the
Queensland coast in March, when corals were first noted turning white.
"These extreme temperatures will become commonplace by the 2030s,
putting a great strain on the ecosystems of the Great Barrier Reef,”
said lead author Andrew King.
"Our research showed this year’s bleaching event is 175 times more
likely today than in a world where humans weren’t emitting greenhouse
gases. We have loaded the odds against the survival of one of the
world’s greatest natural wonders.”
Bleaching is a phenomenon that turns corals white or fades their colours
as they expel tiny photosynthetic algae, threatening a valuable source
of biodiversity, tourism and fishing.
They can recover if the water temperature drops and the algae are able
to recolonise them.
The study is yet to be peer-reviewed, but the centre took the unusual
step of releasing it early because the reef is in such a dire predicament.
"We are confident in the results because these kind of attribution
studies are well established but what we found demands urgent action if
we are to preserve the reef,” said King.
"For this reason, we felt it was vital to get our findings out as
quickly as possible."
Earlier this month, researchers at Australia's James Cook University
said only seven percent of the huge reef had escaped the whitening,
following extensive aerial and underwater surveys.
The damage ranges from minor in the southern areas -- which are expected
to recover soon -- to very severe in the northern and most pristine
reaches of the 2,300 kilometre (1,430 miles) site off Australia's east
coast.
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, from the Global Change Institute at the University
of Queensland, who published a controversial study in 1999 forecasting
such an event, said his predictions were now looking conservative.
"Reefs need time, around 15 years, to completely recover from a coral
bleaching event of this magnitude,” Hoegh-Guldberg said.
“Recovery rates are being overwhelmed by more frequent and severe mass
coral bleaching.”
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