Coral bleaching News

The sun shield is made from an ultra-thin biodegradable film that is 50,000 times thinner than a human hair and contains calcium carbonate, the same ingredient corals use to make their hard skeletons, Efe news quoted GBRF as saying.

The findings, published in the journal Science, add to the burden of climate-related disease outbreaks that have already had an impact on coral reefs globally.

The team conducted analyses to find out which genes were turned on or off when Symbiodinium was exposed to heat stress.

The success of this new research not only applies to the Great Barrier Reef but has potential global significance.

Scientists including those from the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia, are investigating the potential of natural predators of COTS to curb populations.

These micro-algae are called Symbiodinium, a genus of primary producers found in corals that are essential for reef health and, thereby, critical to ocean productivity, said researchers from University of New South Wales in Australia.

Australia`s management of the Great Barrier Reef has come under sustained criticism amid the biggest ever coral die-off as a result of the strongest El Nino in 20 years, a weather event that scientists believe is exacerbated by climate change.

A 2016 aerial survey of the northern Great Barrier Reef showed that 90 per cent of reefs in some of these areas were severely bleached.

The study, based on six months' analysis, comes as the reef suffers an unprecedented second straight year of coral bleaching due to warming sea temperatures linked to climate change with the problems compounded this year by a powerful cyclone pummelling the area. 

Initial aerial and in-water surveys confirmed that about 29% of shallow water corals died from bleaching during 2016, up from the previous estimate of 22%, with the reef currently experiencing an unprecedented second straight year of bleaching.

The combined impact of this back-to-back bleaching stretches for 1,500 km, leaving only the southern third unscathed  said professor Terry Hughes, Director of the James Cook University's Centre for Excellence in Coral Reef Studies.

Climate change is the single greatest threat to the Great Barrier Reef, said co-author professor Morgan Pratchett, from Queensland's James Cook University.

On Thursday, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) carried out the first survey for 2017 over the area between Cairns and Townsville in Queensland state.

The research was undertaken at Heron Island, a coral cay on the southern end of the reef using underwater reef experiments and outdoor lab studies.

The temperature of the seawater surrounding Japan's Sekiseishoko coral reef was one to two degrees Celsius higher than normal between last June and September.

A swathe of corals bleached in the northern third of the 2,300-kilometre (1,429-mile) long biodiverse site off the Queensland state coast died after an unprecedented bleaching earlier this year as sea temperatures rose.

Things certainly appeared bad for them as the bleaching slowly travelled further covering more distance as months passed.

The WWF estimates that 50% of the world's coral reefs has disappeared in the last 30 years. 

 What's really interesting is just how quickly and violently the coral forcefully evicted its resident symbionts, says Brett Lewis.

According to the Guardian, The Maldives contains around 3% of the world’s coral reefs and the islands are considered particularly at risk of climate change because they are low-lying and threatened by sea level rises.