The temperature on the Great Barrier Reef is 400 years high

• by admin
• August 7, 2024

Observations suggest that the Coral Sea is at high surface temperatures during the January through March 2016 peak: warnings on coral mortality and the Great Barrier Reef

Robert Streit, a reef ecologist at the University of Melbourne, said that the study results are worrisome but not surprising. Streit wonders if the Australian government can invest enough money into efforts to conserve the reef to keep it from being destroyed by global warming. Is it creating false hope that science can solve these problems?

The researchers think that the evidence might eventually force the United Nations cultural organization UNESCO to reconsider its decision this year not to include the Great Barrier Reef on the list of endangered World Heritage sites.

The study focuses on the annual temperatures from January through March, when ocean temperatures are at their peak. This year, according to the new coral-skeleton record, the Coral Sea’s surface temperature during this period reached an average of 1.73 °C above the 1618–1899 average. The global warming trend would not have been possible without human activities, according to a study done by Henley and his colleagues.

But researchers caution that the impacts of this year’s mass bleaching event aren’t completely captured in the report and that scientists might not get a full picture of the coral mortality for another 6–9 months. Around 30% to 50% of the reefs surveyed are still at risk according to Neal Cantin, a coralologist at AIMS who helped to lead the surveys.

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A study by University of Melbourne has found that theCoral Sea, which is part of the Great Barrier Reef, is at high surface temperature during the January through March 2016 peak. The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, found that the Coral Sea’s surface temperature during this period reached an average of 1.73 C above the 1618–1899 average.