February 13, 2020
sprep-pa
Aerial surveys by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies in Townsville, Australia, revealed that two-thirds of the Great Barrier Reef had severely paled in 2016 and 2017, “bleaching” under the extreme stress of marine heat waves that can kill corals. Summer 2017 marked the finale of the worst mass-bleaching event on record worldwide, three consecutive years of feverish ocean temperatures, driven by climate change, which affected more than 75% of reefs.
