Massive koralldöd on the barrier reef – the Swedish newspaper svenska Dagbladet

A stretch of 700 kilometers on its northern part, which scientists call the red zone, are the worst affected. When the temperature of the water during the australian summer was two degrees above the normal maximum summer temperatures damaged the coral reef.

– It is very bad. Among the sixty-rev we examined have an average of two-thirds of the corals that were alive in march lost, ” says professor Terry Hughes, director of korallrevsstudier at the Arc center of excellence at James Cook University.

He has flown over the Great barrier reef by helicopter and aircraft to estimate the extent of korallblekningen. With the help of stickkontroller where divers have gone down in hundreds of places, the results have been confirmed.

the Corals form habitats for many other animals, such as fish.

– Koralldöden will affect the rest of the ecosystem, ” says Hughes.

It will take a long time for the most severely damaged parts of the reef to recover, if they ever do.

– the Bleaching in the north was so extreme this time that we’ve seen in the corals fade and die, which normally do not make it, the tougher and slow-growing corals that can live for 50-100 years, ” he says.

The fastest growing corals can be replaced in 10-15 years.

– So the burning question is how likely it is that we get such continuous period of time before the next korallblekningshändelse, with the view of global warming? We have already seen three on the Great barrier reef, the first in 1998, second in 2002 and the third in the year.

Probably we will not see the same mix of plants and animals in the area during our lifetime, according to Hughes. Nevertheless, the situation could be considerably worse.

– the Entire barrier reef would have been in the red zone, if not the cyclone, Winston had pulled out of it. The thoroughly cooled down the temperatures in the southern and middle part in the march, and saved it from the extreme heat.

In the southern part of the reef has virtually no coral bleaching at all become permanent, and the middle part is the proportion of dead coral six per cent. In the most northern part has an average of 26 percent of the corals died.