[Coral-List] Great Barrier Reef bleaching

[Hughes, Terry]

Two-thirds of Great Barrier Reef hit by back-to-back mass coral bleaching

For the second time in just 12 months, we have recorded severe coral bleaching across huge tracts of the Great Barrier Reef. In 2016, bleaching was most severe in the northern third of the Reef, while one year on, the middle third has experience the most intense coral bleaching. The combined impact of this back-to-back bleaching stretches for 1,500 km (900 miles), leaving only the southern third unscathed.

This is the fourth time the Great Barrier Reef has bleached severely - in 1998, 2002, 2016, and now in 2017. In the March 16th issue of Nature, we published maps of the first three events, and related them to the temperatures in each year.

The severity in 2017, outside of El Nino conditions, is second only to 2016.. You can see a new map of the 2017 bleaching at
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dgnfo1cqgv70u9g/AAATIzKgYROWoRFq3B8dvF8Va?dl=0

Best wishes,

Professor Terry Hughes FAA
ARC Laureate Fellow
Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811
Australia

Link to Terry Hughes Google Scholar profile<http://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=MhJ2LfsAAAAJ>

Email: terry.hughes at jcu.edu.au<mailto:terry.hughes at jcu.edu.au>
Phone: 61 (0)7 4781 4000
Website: http://www.coralcoe.org.au/postdocs/terry-hughes