There are fundamental knowledge gaps around coral in the Great Barrier Reef, including how many species live there and where they’re found. Our new study finally starts to fill those gaps.
Climate-driven ocean warming threatens healthy coral reefs, like this one in Hawaii.
Shawna Foo
Hundreds of organizations are working around the world to restore damaged coral reefs. New research shows that rapid ocean warming threatens these efforts.
They’re more used to taking visitors to the reefs, but COVID-19 gave tour operators time to help check the condition of the corals. What they found doesn’t bode well.
A school of convict tang (Acanthurus triostegus) swim on Kiritimati’s dead reefs after the 2015–16 marine heatwave.
(Kevin Bruce)
Coral bleaching last summer was severe and widespread. And for the first time, severe bleaching has struck all three regions of the Great Barrier Reef.
Australia says the reef’s world heritage values are fine and the threats are in hand. But the reality is far different.
A researcher completing bleaching surveys in the southern Great Barrier Reef after a major bleaching event.
ARC CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR CORAL REEF STUDIES
Few feel the pain of the Great Barrier Reef’s decline more acutely than the scientists trying to save it. Ahead of a UN climate summit, two researchers write of their grief, and hope.
Tourists snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef, the outlook for which has been officially rated “very poor”.
AAP
In the days before scuba technology, the celebrated photographer sought to capture the beauty of the reef by placing corals in an aquarium and shooting them. But under stress, they released algae.
Bleached staghorn coral on the Great Barrier Reef. Many species are dependent on corals for food and shelter.
Damian Thomson
The Western Australian coral reefs may not be as well known as the Great Barrier Reef, but they’re just as large and diverse. And they too have been devastated by cyclones and coral bleaching.
Marine heatwaves have caused coral bleaching in one of the most isolated ecosystems in the world.
Children play on a beach in Palau, in the western Pacific Ocean. The country was the first to place a sweeping ban on sunscreen to protect its reefs.
(AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)