Coral bleaching taking place around Lizard Island has been recorded in a series of new photographs, revealing damage done by environmental degradation.
The area is part of the Great Barrier Reef, located off the coast of Australia. The damage is taking place over one-third of the reef, a region the size of Scotland. There, nearly half of the coral are affected by the bleaching.
Coral reefs have a dramatic variety of life, and the Great Barrier Reef is home to hundreds of thousands of animal species. However, a wide variety of environmental challenges threaten these wild marine fields.
Bleaching can be driven by unusually warm waters, an effect which becomes more pronounced as global climate change results in rising temperatures. The effect occurs when coral are subjected to above-average temperatures for two to three months. High levels of ultraviolet light can also increase the rate at which color fades in coral.
Researchers know of just three major bleaching events, each of which has taken place since 1998, 2002, and 2016. This latest event, occurring around the globe, is the most severe of the three.
The Great Barrier Reef aerial survey found just 7 percent of that area has, so far, avoided bleaching. That study examined 911 reefs from the air, utilizing small plane and helicopter observations. Divers have gone beneath the waves to confirm the findings made by aerial surveillance.
"We've never seen anything like this scale of bleaching before. In the northern Great Barrier Reef, it's like 10 cyclones have come ashore all at once. Towards the southern end, most of the reefs have minor to moderate bleaching and should soon recover," Terry Hughes of the National Coral Bleaching Taskforce said.
Coral bleaching and death can change reefs teeming with biodiversity into a graveyard of coral, covered in algae. In some areas, bleaching has taken the lives of half the local coral. The final death toll in some regions could exceed 90 percent.
Fish in the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia are no longer learning how to identify predators due to human influence on the region. Death of coral within the reef prevents small reef fish from correctly identifying threats, researchers concluded.
As global warming continues, even coral living far from the coast will continue to feel the effects of human-driven climate change.
