GBR Bleaching Worst On Record; Sea Temps Highest On Record And Yes, It Has Everything To Do W. Us

[hatrack]

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According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the sea surface temperatures (SST) in the Coral Sea region have been the highest on record for this most recent summer wet season. The BoM’s ocean temperature record goes back to the year 1900. As this chart shows, SSTs overlapping the northern parts of the reef have been the highest of any summer (December to February) on record.

Hughes said that in 1998, 2002 and this current GBR bleaching event, the areas of the reef that bleached matched “perfectly” the areas with unusually high SST. The record warm oceans that have been stressing the corals in recent weeks are part of a long-term trend of warming ocean temperatures around the globe, including the waters off Australia.

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When I asked Hughes about the cause of the bleaching, he replied simply: “Global warming – the link is incontrovertible.” What’s also important to understand is that the corals in the north that have been bleached, are probably the least impacted by human activity across the GBR. Current and previous governments at state and federal levels, of both stripes, have increased investments to cut the amount of nutrient-rich waters and pollution running into the reef from farms and development along the coast.

But scientists, including the government’s own, have been warning for years now that the most important threat to the reef is from climate change. Hughes says that while it is true that some coral species are more resilient to bleaching than others, this gives him little comfort when he had witnessed even the most resilient species bleached in recent days. “If half the corals bleach you will sea a pattern of winners and losers. But if all the corals are bleaching, then there are no winners. And they are all bleaching,” he says.

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http://www.theguardian.com/environment/planet-oz/2016/mar/30/link-between-fossil-fuels-and-great-barrier-reef-bleaching-clear-and-incontrovertible-say-scientists