In the past eight years, the Great Barrier Reef — the largest coral reef in the world, stretching 1,429 miles — has experienced five mass bleaching events, tied by scientists to climate change. Most recently, corals around six islands in Turtle Group National Park, located about 6.2 miles off Australia’s Queensland Coast, have seen extensive […]
A new study led by researchers at Australia’s University of Queensland (UQ) has found that the planet has more coral reef area than previously believed. Scientists have identified 134,364 square miles of shallow coral reefs at depths of up to 65.6 to 98.4 feet deep, according to Dr. Mitchell Lyons of the School of the […]
While scientists have known that pollutants from human activities like agriculture, plastic production and coastal development threaten corals, a new study is the first to find pollutants tied to burning fossil fuels embedded in corals. Researchers from the Instituto de Acuicultura de Torre de la Sal collected samples from the coral species Cladocora caespitosa of […]
Marine heat waves (MHWs) are prolonged periods of ocean warming that can significantly affect coral reefs, fish, kelp forests and other marine life. A new study led by Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has found that MHWs are changing the communities of microorganisms that make up the foundation of the oceanic food […]
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Coral Reef Watch has added three new alert levels to track potential risks to coral reefs and other marine life following the hottest year on record. Previously, Coral Reef Watch’s Bleaching Alert Area product stopped at a Bleaching Alert Level 2, which warned of a “risk of reef-wide […]
For the first time, scientists have succeeded in mapping the largest deep-sea coral reef in the world, which runs hundreds of miles off the Atlantic coast of the United States. The massive 6.4-million-acre reef is bigger than the state of Vermont, a press release from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said. “It’s eye-opening […]
Following what is expected to be the warmest year on record, next year could bring massive coral bleaching events that disrupt marine ecosystems. Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a marine studies professor at the University of Queensland, Australia, is predicting that coral reefs will experience dramatic bleaching. Hoegh-Guldberg and colleagues shared their predictions in a “Perspectives” piece for […]
According to a new report led by professor Tim Lenton from the University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute, in collaboration with more than 200 researchers worldwide, Earth’s climate has already warmed enough that humans are at risk of triggering five global “tipping points” that could have disastrous effects on the planet. If the world warms […]
Coral bleaching occurs when stressors such as changes in temperature, nutrients or light cause corals to expel the zooxanthellae algae living in their tissue, turning them white. The most common cause of coral bleaching is warming ocean temperatures due to climate change. Now, a new study by scientists from England’s University of Plymouth has found […]