The Great Barrier Reef's latest bout of bleaching is the fifth in eight summers—the corals now have almost no reprieve.
The Great Barrier Reef 's latest bout of bleaching is the fifth in eight summers—the corals now have almost no reprieve. For the fifth time in just the past eight summers—2016, 2017, 2020, 2022 and now 2024—huge swathes of the Great Barrier Reef are experiencing extreme heat stress that has triggered yet another bleaching event.
Including two earlier heating episodes—in 1998 (which was at the time the hottest year globally on record) and 2002—this brings the tally to seven such extreme events in the past 26 years. The most conspicuous impact of unusually high temperatures on tropical and subtropical reefs is wide-scale coral bleaching and death. Sharp spikes in temperature can destroy coral tissue directly, even before bleaching unfolds. Consequently, if temperatures exceed 2°C above the normal summer maximum, heat-sensitive corals die very quickly. Bleaching happens when marine heat waves disrupt the relationship between corals and their 'photosynthetic symbionts'—tiny organisms that live inside the corals' tissues and help power their metabolism
Great Barrier Reef Bleaching Heat Stress Coral Temperature Marine Heat Waves
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