A severely bleached branching coral among minimally bleached boulder coral. After two consecutive years of marine heat waves, scientists warn that some corals in the Great Barrier Reef may never return to their previous state. (ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies/Gergely Torda)
The Great Barrier Reef suffered a catastrophic die-off after two back-to-back marine heat waves in 2016 and 2017, a new study finds – and many of its reef communities have been fundamentally changed.
The grim discovery, described in the journal Nature, reveals just how vulnerable many coral species are to rising ocean temperatures and shows that these vital habitats will continue to be affected if global warming continues unabated.
Thanks to decades of greenhouse gases released by human activity, global warming has been heating the oceans and impacting the health of marine…
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Exposing the Big Game 