The bleaching hitting the Great Barrier Reef not only harms corals. As these close-up photos show, it also deprives many other species of a home and livelihood.
Virtual reality is enabling researchers to get first hand experience of remote environments, helping them make better decisions about their conservation.
Bleaching has hit a huge swathe of the Great Barrier Reef, with many corals in the reef’s remote northern reaches now expected to die as a result of warm waters linked to this summer’s El Niño.
Camille Mellin, Australian Institute of Marine Science; Aaron MacNeil, Australian Institute of Marine Science, dan Julian Caley, Australian Institute of Marine Science
Banning fishing helps fish, but it also helps reef recover from cyclones, disease, and coral bleaching.
Authorities have moved the Great Barrier Reef onto its highest alert level in response to widespread coral bleaching. Months of monitoring will now be needed to assess the ongoing damage.
By artificially going ‘back in time’ to more alkaline ocean conditions, researchers have shown the damage that ocean acidification is already doing to the Great Barrier Reef.
Despite 15 years of concerted action by the Australian and Queensland governments the health of the reef is not improving and in fact may be continuing to deteriorate.
The latest Great Barrier Reef report shows some improvements to water quality over the past five years, but there’s still a lot to do on one particular problem: nitrogen.
Australia was spared the ignominy of having the Great Barrier Reef listed as officially in danger. But comments from member countries of the World Heritage Committee show the world is still worried about it.