Half of the corals have died

The Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of Australia, is the largest coral reef system in the world. It stretches for more than 2,600 kilometers and is now threatened by climate change.

A new study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, states that half of the corals in the Great Barrier Reef died between 1995 and 2017. The massive deaths have mainly affected the branched coral species Acropora florida and corals. larger in table form. They are species that usually constitute homes for fish and other marine species in the area, writes the BBC.

Coral bleaching leads to mass death

The study is supported by marine scientists from the ARC Centers of Excellence in Australia. One of them is Professor Terry Hughes, who points to coral bleaching as a fatal problem for reefs.

Coral bleaching occurs when corals are exposed to stress, which causes the algae that give them color to be expelled. The result is colorless corals that look more like rocks than vegetation.

In most cases, corals can naturally recover from bleaching. But the process has been hampered by rising sea temperatures due to climate change. The heat has also caused an increase in harmful algae that threaten the entire ecosystem.

“We used to think that the Great Barrier Reef was protected because of its size, but our results show that even the world’s largest and relatively well-protected reef system is increasingly threatened and shrunken,” Terry Hughes told the BBC.

In March, researchers warned that the Great Barrier Reef had been hit by the third largest mass bleaching in five years. How much of an impact whitening has had is still unknown.