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GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT OUTLOOK FOR YOUTH IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC


Box 7: Could we lose the largest coral reef in the world to climate change?


The Great Barrier Reef (GBR), located on Australia’s northeast coast, is the world’s largest coral reef system. This magnificent living structure can even be seen from outer space! Declared a World Heritage Site in 1981, the GBR more than 2 300 kilometers long, stretches over an area of about 344 400 square kilometers.


The most recent tragedy for these coral reefs is the worst coral die off ever recorded in the GBR (Hughes et al. 2018). In early 2014, driven by climate change, warming seawater temperatures triggered a global bleaching event that lasted for almost three years. By then, almost 29 per cent of the GBR’s corals had died.


Watch this interview with Professor Terry Hughes, a coral scientist monitoring the condition of the GBR. A video link


https://www.theguardian.com/environment/video/2016/jun/07/coral-bleaching-has-changed- the-great-barrier-reef-forever-video


Coral reef before and after it experienced severe bleaching in the 2016 mass bleaching event. Rising sea surface temperature causes large-scale coral bleaching, a phenomenon in which corals expel their symbiotic microalgae and turn white. This in turn, has been linked to high coral mortality rates.


Source: The Ocean Agency; XL Caitlin Seaview Survey; Coral Reef Image Bank.


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