Corals of the Great Barrier Reef losing their sheen due to global warming

In the opinion of scientists, nearly 93% of Australia's Great Barrier Reef is affected by coral bleaching which is presumed to be a direct fallout of abnormally warm ocean temperatures attributable to global warming. The GBR is a World Heritage site and this damage to the corals is established by the footage released by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 20 April 2016.

Experts had carried out extensive aerial and underwater surveys along the full 1,429-mile length of the Great Barrier Reef in March and April when the damage has come to light. The finding is that only 7% are not affected or 68 of the 911 individual reefs examined.
It was also revealed that between 60% and 100% of corals were severely bleached on 316 reefs - nearly all of these were in the northern half of the Reef. Another finding is that the reefs in Sydney Harbour were affected by minor bleaching for the first time.
The study was undertaken by the National Coral Bleaching Taskforce and the fact is that, at the moment, nearly 50% of the coral is already dead or dying. Coral bleaching occurs when abnormal environmental conditions, like warmer sea temperatures, make the corals to expel tiny photosynthetic algae called zooxanthellae. This drains them of their color. Of course, coral can recover if the temperature drops and the algae are able to recolonize them.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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