Date published: 2006/05/15
The BBC says:
Rising ocean temperatures look set to cause lasting devastation to coral reef systems, a study suggests.
An international team of researchers looked at reefs in the Seychelles, where an ocean warming event in 1998 killed much of the live coral.
The group found the oceanic reef had experienced fish extinctions, algal growth, and only limited recovery.
Details have been published in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The 1998 event saw Indian Ocean surface temperatures rise to unprecedented levels, killing off - or "bleaching" - more than 90% of the inner Seychelles coral. Coral bleaching has been described as a vivid demonstration of climate change in action.
"[Bleaching events] are becoming more frequent and are predicted to become more severe in coming decades. They are directly linked to increases in sea surface temperatures," said lead author Nick Graham, of the University of Newcastle, UK.
...
Since 1998, another three bleaching events have been recorded in the Indian Ocean and at least two in the Pacific."Various [computer simulations] suggest we'll be having a 1998-scale bleaching event annually within 30 years, so the outlook is pretty bleak for how common these events will become," said Dr Graham.
Worldwide, coral reefs cover an estimated 284,300 sq km and support over 25% of all known marine species.
Nothing that new here, it is well known that coral are going to be some of the first victims of global warming. But worth studying specific examples, all the same.
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