Editor’s Note: A recent NY Times report is headlined, “The Great Barrier Reef was Seen as ‘Too Big to Fail.’ A Study Suggests It Isn’t.” The following is an abstract, “Global warming impairs stock–recruitment dynamics of corals” released Wednesday in… Read More ›
We now have a 2017 event, which is not quite as bad as 2016, but certainly worse than the first two events that we studied [in 1998 and 2002]. That is significant because it postpones any hope of recovery. The current bleaching occupies a different geographical footprint from last year, which is bad news because it means between last year and this year a much greater extent of the Great Barrier Reef has now been damaged. In 2017, the hot water was in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef, the central section; last year it was in the north.
“I’m very worried about acidification. Some coral species will substitute for others, but if you lose table corals and tall branching corals, most of nooks and crannies – the hiding places for juvenile fish – will disappear. And it’ll directly affect humans being because fish stocks will be affected.”
But if current trends continue, the unthinkable could happen: the Great Barrier Reef could die.
From The Nature Conservancy Between the southern tip of Asia and northern Australia, hundreds of miles of coral reef bind six island nations – Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. From sea turtles… Read More ›
Neptune 911! 