<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/06/lord-howe-island-coral-bleaching-moving-south-fears-ocean-temperatures>
"Scientists fear excessive ocean heat – which is bleaching corals in parts of
the Great Barrier Reef – is now hitting the world’s most southern coral reef at
the world heritage-listed Lord Howe island.
There are also concerns ocean temperatures are reaching dangerous levels for
corals at Australia’s remote Norfolk Island, which is about 1400km east of
Queensland’s Gold Coast.
One scientist said Lord Howe and Norfolk had many corals that had yet to be
described by science.
Scientists monitoring reefs at Lord Howe, about 600km east of Port Macquarie on
the central coast of New South Wales, have recently recorded a dramatic jump in
the numbers of corals either bleached or turning pale.
Prof Bill Leggat, a coral scientist at the University of Newcastle who is
helping co-ordinate long-term monitoring of corals at Lord Howe, said that over
the past two weeks “the thermal stress has really ramped up and we are seeing
bleaching coming on quite quickly”.
“We are seeing pretty much all the susceptible corals bleaching or paling all
across the bay. It was quite confronting. This is the start of a major and
quite severe bleaching event.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
