Study shows for the first time which parts of the Great Barrier Reef and other reefs can be expected to bounce back from mass bleaching events
Scientists have identified which parts of the Great Barrier Reef and other reefs are most capable of recovering from mass bleaching events which will become more frequent due to global warming.
The information should help conservationists to target their efforts to protect the portions of reefs that are most capable of survival, they say.
Previous studies have shown coral reefs as they exist today will be largely wiped out by climate change in the long term, but the new work by an Australian team shows for the first time which reefs in the short term can be expected to bounce back from bleaching events.
A major bleaching event is currently under way in large parts of the North Pacific, including the Marshall Islands and Hawaii, which experts have warned could be on a ‘historic’ scale akin to the record bleaching of 1998 that saw mass coral die-off around the world.
Nicholas Graham, lead author of the study published in Nature on Wednesday, looked at the 1998 bleaching’s impacts on reefs in the Seychelles, and found 12 of 21 sites had recovered afterwards.
