Climate Change: 400-Year Record Heat Threatens Great Barrier Reef | ZINFO NEWS

A study of samples taken from centuries-old coral reveals the severe threat climate change poses to the Great Barrier Reef.

Researchers in Australia report that temperatures in and around the vast coral reef over the past decade are the highest recorded in 400 years.

Extreme heat has already caused five mass bleaching events in the past nine years alone.

Writing in the journal Nature, the scientists behind the study warn that increased temperatures, driven by climate change, now pose an “existential threat” to this natural wonder of the world.

Stay tuned to ZINFO NEWS for the latest updates on this critical issue.

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[OldScientist]

The Great Barrier Reef's coral cover reached the greatest extent ever recorded in 2022, 2023 and 2024 (AIMS), and that is despite reports of supposed repeated bleaching, despite starfish predation and despite any bad weather. It should be renamed the Greatest Barrier Reef!
If you look at the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) data, the WIO (West Indian Ocean) shows 26% hard coral cover in 1985 upto 30% in 2020. South Asia reefs shows a decline around 2000 to below 25% then a regrowth to around 40% (2010) and a decline to 25% (2020). The Red Sea shows no change at around 25% (1995-2020). So the pattern in these three areas show no relationship to each other or to a changing climate. The Caribbean region reefs have a cover of around 0.15 ± 0.02. There is no evidence of a major reduction in coral cover in the Caribbean over the last two decades.
GCRMN data for the most important coral bioregion, the East Asia Seas, with 30% of the world’s coral reefs, and containing the most diverse coral of the ‘Coral Triangle’, show no statistically significant net coral loss since records began. The East Asia region has the biggest human population living in close proximity to reefs, and is located in the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool – the hottest major water mass on earth.
Life is most diverse in the warmest parts of the world’s oceans. This has been shown across 13 major taxonomic groups from zooplankton to marine mammals. Warmer water = more biodiversity. This is a scare story about things you cannot see.