The Great Barrier Reef is the cumulative masterpiece of generations of coral building on top of one another for as many as twenty million years, according to greatbarrierreef.org. Located in the Coral Sea, the 1,429-mile-long reef is the greatest living structure on Earth and is host to many species of marine life, including sponges, coral, […]
After record-high temperatures for the last four months of 2021, the Great Barrier Reef is at risk of another mass bleaching event. Experts are shocked and concerned by the unprecedented levels of heat stress on the corals. From September through December 14, 2021, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) noted more heat stress over the […]
There’s hope that an innovative idea may have what it takes to help save the beleaguered Great Barrier Reef. For the first time, Coral IVF babies have themselves reproduced on a previously degraded reef, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF) announced Monday. “We couldn’t be more excited to see that these coral babies have grown […]
The news is full of dire warnings about the future and current health of the Great Barrier Reef, but the World Heritage Site is not dead yet. Scientists on Tuesday night recorded videos of corals spawning en masse off the coast of Cairns, Queensland. “Nothing makes people happier than new life, and coral spawning is […]
The Great Barrier Reef is in trouble. It has experienced five mass bleaching events since 1998, three of them in the last five years. Now, new research published in Current Biology Thursday finds that only two percent of the reef escaped some bleaching during that time. “This is one of the most confronting results of […]
Australian scientists are trialing a unique strategy to protect the Great Barrier Reef from the climate crisis: altering clouds to keep it cool during marine heatwaves. The idea behind the ‘Marine Cloud Brightening for the Great Barrier Reef‘ project is to reduce the risk of coral bleaching in the short term while global greenhouse gas […]
By Jake Johnson An intense lobbying campaign by the pro-fossil fuel Australian government succeeded Friday in keeping the Great Barrier Reef off a list of World Heritage Sites considered “in danger,” despite experts’ warnings that the biodiverse ecosystem is increasingly imperiled by the global climate emergency. The 21-nation World Heritage Committee — organized by the […]
The UN World Heritage Committee has proposed to downgrade the Great Barrier Reef‘s World Heritage status due to climate change and the Australian government isn’t happy about it. The World Heritage Committee is a group of 12 nations, chaired by China. If the status of the reef is downgraded, it can affect the tourism revenue […]
By Hannah Thomasy On its own, a single sea cucumber may not be very impressive. But get enough of these floppy, faceless creatures together, and they—or, more specifically, their poop—can physically and biochemically reshape a coral reef habitat. In a recently published study, an Australian research team used drone surveys, satellite imagery, and observations of […]
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