The damage caused to the Great Barrier Reef by global warming has compromised the capacity of its corals to recover, according to new research published today in Nature. "Dead corals don't make babies," said lead author Professor Terry Hughes, Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University (JCU). "The number of new corals settling on the Great Barrier Reef declined by 89 percent following the unprecedented loss of adult corals from global warming in 2016 and 2017."
The unique study measured how many adult corals survived along the length of the world's largest reef system following extreme heat stress, and how many new corals they produced to replenish the Great Barrier Reef in 2018. The loss of adults resulted in a crash in coral replenishment compared to levels measured in previous years before mass coral bleaching. "The number of coral larvae that are produced each year, and where they travel to before settling on a reef, are vital components of the resilience of the Great Barrier Reef. Our study shows that reef resilience is now severely compromised by global warming," said co-author Professor Andrew Baird.
Recruitment tiles made from terracotta were deployed at 15 reefs along the Great Barrier Reef to quantify coral recruitment after the devastating back-to-back mass bleaching event in 2016-2017. Photo Credit: ARC CoE for Coral Reef Studies/ Gergely Torda
(Source: Agriculture and Food News, ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com)
