Australia’s environment took a beating in 2018, as temperatures rose, rainfall declined, the health of rivers and ecosystems worsened, and floods, droughts and bushfires all took their toll.
L’expertise universitaire, l’exigence journalistique
Great Barrier Reef – Analyses
After repeated bleaching in 2016 and 2017 corals on the Great Barrier Reef are producing far fewer offspring.
Despite bans around the world, there’s no empirical evidence sunscreens cause coral bleaching.
Banning fishing in no-take marine reserves on the Great Barrier Reef does not protect sharks as well as received wisdom would tell you.
Australia is facing an increase in extreme heat, fire danger weather, floods and marine heatwaves, according to the latest biennial snapshot from the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO.
Coral reefs are in trouble, but other marine species are also feeling the strain but are off the conservation radar.
Marine sponges are ancient organisms that have survived mass extinctions. Many are more tolerant of climate change and may dominate over corals in future reef systems.
Federal Labor has pledged to withdraw the A$443 million given to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. But the foundation’s decisions are led by science, and free of undue influence, its chief scientist says.
The $444 million awarded to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation has been criticised as a politically calculated move. But governments have been asking what the reef can do for them ever since colonial times.
What would you do if you saw a fisher breaking the law? Would you report the offender to the police? Confront them? Or would you do nothing? These choices affect the future of marine protected areas.
Scientists have used ‘tree rings’ in coral to identify centuries of stress.
Climate mitigation efforts are unlikely to be enough to save critical ecosystems like the Great Barrier Reef. We may need to consider more radical environmental engineering.
The 2016 heatwave that caused mass bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef didn’t just kill corals - it also significantly changed the makeup of fish communities that call these reefs home.
Not everything humans put in the ocean is garbage. From walls of tyres to sunken sculptures, reef restoration is both a science and an art.
New research highlights the role of sea turtles and dugong in the dispersal of seeds and maintenance of seagrass meadows, an important marine habitat and the primary food source for both animals.
The federal government’s new $500 million funding package for the Great Barrier Reef seems predominantly focused on the tactics that are already being tried, without much success.
The 2016 bleaching event resulted in 30% mortality on the Great Barrier Reef, with many corals dying of the heat before they bleached and the loss of branching corals creating less complex reef structure.
The noise from motor boats, sonar and other industrial activity interferes with the underwater chatter of fishes.
New global communities of concerned citizens can help protect iconic places such as the Great Barrier Reef. But the scope of these remote communities must extend beyond mere ‘slacktivism’.
Adani is being seen as a test of Bill Shorten’s commitment to policy integrity versus his willingness to say and do whatever is politically expedient.
Politics Podcast: Bill Ferris on Australia’s innovation mission
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Innovation and Science Australia chair Bill Ferris launched a report this week setting out a plan that seeks to put Australia into the top tier of innovation nations by 2030.
The federal government’s new funding aims to spread the net wide in investigating possible ways to protect the Great Barrier Reef’s corals. Winning this battle will require a wide range of weapons.
Imagine being one of the last few people alive. Would that make it ok to destroy the natural world? This thought experiment reveals the true value of nature, beyond the benefits to humans.
With 99% of green sea turtles in the northern Great Barrier Reef hatching as females due to changing climate, the future for this species now depends largely on effective global conservation measures.
The 2016 bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef was the worst on record. Now a new analysis points the finger squarely at human-induced warming, and warns that the entire reef’s future is at stake.