Coral bleaching affects northern half of Great Barrier Reef
MAR 29, 2016
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.029698
Wall Street Journal : Over the past six months, 95% of the northern section of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has been affected by coral bleaching. Bleaching occurs when ocean temperatures increase, killing the algae that inhabit coral and give the reefs their color. Without the algae, the coral starve and eventually die. The damage was assessed by an aerial survey, which is now examining the southern part of the reef. The bleaching event isn’t localized to the Great Barrier Reef; it is the third global event since 1998. All have been tied to the occurrence of an El Niño system in the southern Pacific.
© 2016. American Institute of Physics