Earlier this year, the Great Barrier Reef Australia cooked at temperatures that were higher than anything that has been experienced for at least four centuries, said climate researcher. The results-which you published in Nature today 1 and attribute to the man-made climate change-come up, as a scientist, the effects of the To understand the most intensive and comprehensive coral blade event, which was each held in the 2,300 kilometer reef system .

"We now have a long-term recording that shows how extreme these recent events are," says Ben Henley, climatologist at the University of Melbourne in Australia and the main author of the Nature study. Henley and his colleagues determine past
Sea temperatures at the Great Barrier Reef by drilling and chemical analyzing coral skeletons at 22 locations in the huge reef system.

Korals Usually bleach if they are stressed by high temperatures : They emit the colorful algae that live in them and provide them with energy through photosynthesis. Depending on the severity and duration of the pale event
Can the corals recover or die and threaten the species -rich ecosystems that offer habitat for fishing, attract tourists and protect them from storming.

The trend that was uncovered in the latest study is clear: at the turn of the century, after the beginning of industrialization, the sea temperatures on the reef began to rise steadily. And in the past two decades, the temperatures have strongly
increased, with five of the six warmest years in the 407-year-old sea level record since 2016.

uncertain effects

The study appears almost at the same time as the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in Townsville, his latest report on the condition of the Great Barrier Reef, including data from air and underwater examinations of corals, which has been carried out earlier this year since a massive blade event
became. This analysis, published on August 7, contains some encouraging news: Many areas of the riff have recovered since 2016, As a big blade event to far-reaching coral death led .

But the researchers warn that the effects of this year's mass bleed event are not fully recorded in the report and that scientists could only get a complete picture of coral salvation in another 6-9 months. Round
30-50% of the reefs checked from the air are still at risk, says Neal Cantin, a coral biologist at AIMS who helped with the investigations.

"Corals can stay bleached for a while, so we will only know the full impact when we have gone through the recovery phase," says Cantin. "But if we continue to have this level of accelerated warming and more frequent
See this recovery processes will deteriorate quite quickly. ”

hot water

The latest Nature study focuses on year mean temperatures from January to March when the sea temperatures at the reef culminate. This year the surface temperature of the coral sea reached during this period
According to the new coral skeleton record, an average of 1.73 ° C above the average of 1618-1899. Henley and his colleagues have modeled the climate of the earth with and without historical greenhouse gas emissions and found that the
Occuel heating trend in her record without human activity would not have been possible.

The researchers believe that the evidence may have to force UNESCO, the organization of the United Nations for Education, Science and Culture, their Decision of this year to rethink the Great Barrier Reef in the list of endangered world sites
to record .

The study results are worrying, "but not surprising," says Robert Streit, a riffolicologist at the University of Melbourne. The Australian government has submitted a plan to billions of dollars in Measure to maintain the Riffs to help the corals, but asking to be sufficient if this is sufficient if this is sufficient, in order to master the destruction caused by global warming. "Creation
We have false hopes that science can solve these problems? "

Henley says it is clear that the reef will not survive in its current form if the temperatures continue to rise, and this raises important questions about what will remain in the coming decades. "I think it is likely that the
Great Barrier Reef will be a very different place in 20-30 years, ”he says.