For the past decade, water temperatures along Australia’s famed Great Barrier Reef have been the warmest in 400 years, a major study said on Thursday. Ocean temperatures around the spectacular coral system have increased yearly since 1960 but were particularly hotter during recent mass coral bleaching events, according to a study in the science journal Nature. The warmer waters are most likely down to human-induced climate change, the report said.
Co-author Helen McGregor said she was “extremely concerned” about the reef, describing the temperature increases as “unprecedented”. “These are corals that have lived for 400 years and this is the warmest temperatures they’re experiencing. These are the Redwood trees of the reef,” she told AFP.
Often dubbed the world’s largest living structure, the Great Barrier Reef is a 2,300-kilometre (1,400-mile) long expanse, home to a stunning array of biodiversity that includes more than 600 types of coral and 1,625 fish species. But repeated mass bleaching events — when extreme heat saps the coral of nutrients and color — threaten the reef’s fragile ecosystem. Coral bleaching occurs when water temperatures rise more than one degree Celsius (1.
8 degrees Fahrenheit). ‘Changes happening too quickly’ The Australian researchers examined sea surface temperatures in the Coral Sea — a 2,000-kilometre (1,200-mile) stretch of ocean that extends down the northeast coast and includes the Great Barrier Reef. Scientists used .