Visit the Great Barrier Reef Before Climate Change Kills the Coral

Researchers at the Australian Institute of Marine Science observed record coral regrowth this year along two-thirds of the Great Barrier Reef’s expanse. It’s the largest growth in 36 years of official monitoring, and it’s great news.

But it’s a problem that the regrowth was necessary at all. Without repeated heat-driven coral bleaching — four episodes in seven years — the reefs wouldn’t have needed to bounce back. Heat can chase off the algae that thrive on corals and give them their color — hence “bleaching” — or kill the coral outright at high enough temperatures.

And while the recovery is a welcome headline, the same annual report of reef conditions warns that “there is increasing concern for its ability to maintain this state.” A study published last week in the journal PLos Biology refined the point: When multiple threats to reefs — heat waves, storms, acidification, pollution run-off — are considered at the same time, half the world’s coral face real danger by 2035.

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