<
https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/24098428/scientists-ocean-coral-spawning-bleaching-great-barrier-reef>
"Coral reefs around the world are turning white and dying.
Today scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
declared the world is currently experiencing its fourth global bleaching event
on record.
Bleaching is bad. During long spells of extreme heat, the relationship between
coral and the algae that live inside its tissues breaks down. Those algae give
the corals most of their food and their brilliant color in exchange for
nutrients and a place to absorb sunlight. White, or “bleached,” corals aren’t
dead; they are starving to death.
Since early last year, NOAA scientists have confirmed mass bleaching in the
Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans, including along the coastlines of
Florida, the Caribbean, and the Great Barrier Reef. The first bleaching event
on a global scale was in 1998. “As the world’s oceans continue to warm, coral
bleaching is becoming more frequent and severe,” Derek Manzello, a coral reef
ecologist at NOAA, said Monday in a statement.
This is bleak for pretty much everyone on the planet. Coral reefs operate like
seawalls, helping minimize flooding during hurricanes. They provide homes to
roughly a quarter of all marine species including the fish people eat at one
point or another. And they are an engine of the tourism economy in many places,
such as the Florida Keys, Mexico, and Australia.
But amid all this destruction — which will almost certainly get worse in the
decades to come — there are still some signs of hope. Not all coral reefs are
dying. Indeed, some are teeming with life.
In March, a team of marine biologists was diving off the coast of Cambodia when
they witnessed something that filled them with awe."
Via
Fix the News:
<
https://fixthenews.com/good-news-malaria-india-tolerance-africa-deforestation-brazil/>
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
