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The Great Barrier Reef is now facing the hot sea surface temperature in four centuries , a new study find out . The speedy warming is cause monolithic coral bleaching which threatens the marine ecosystem and biodiversity , the scientists warn .
" The Earth is losing one of its ikon , " bailiwick lead authorBenjamin Henley , a paleoclimatologist at the University of Melbourne , Australia , said at a newsworthiness conference Tuesday ( Aug. 6 ) . " We will sadly see the demise of one of Earth ’s most striking born wonders . "
Mass Coral Bleaching has been happening in the Great Barrier Reef since the 1990s.
The Great Barrier Reef , off the seashore of Queensland , is home to the world ’s large appeal of coral reefs , stretch for more than 1,400 miles ( 2,253 kilometers ) , and cover an arena greater than 134,000 hearty miles ( 348,000 hearty kilometers ) .
In a new bailiwick published Wednesday ( Aug. 7 ) in the journalNature , scientists revealed that the ocean airfoil temperature in the first three months of 2024 is the warmest ever register in 400 age , pass 0.34 degrees Fahrenheit ( 0.19 point Celsius ) above the previous disc heights .
This unprecedented gamey temperature is the key driver of coral bleaching , the scientist said .
Coral core under UV light (top) and visible light (bottom). The coral lives in the tissue layer at the top of the core, which appears brown in visible light. Scientists analyzed the skeleton’s geochemistry to reconstruct ocean temperatures. The bands on the coral skeleton serve as a timeline.
Related : Great Barrier Reef Again Hit by Severe Coral Bleaching
Coral bleachingoccurs when environmental stress , such as heat energy and pollution , causes a precious coral to expel the coloured algae — its primary food source — that live inside it . When the algae leave , the coral loses its vivacious colors and turns blank . Bleached corals are more susceptible todisease and death .
The study authors reconstructed sea Earth’s surface temperature from 1618 to 2024 using temperature phonograph recording from several location on the eastern part of the reef . The temperature records came from ship and satellite data point as well as coral core , which are drilled from coral skeletal system and control light and dark bands denote the year . It ’s " a bit like Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree rings that we can count , " study co - authorHelen McGregor , a paleoclimatologist at the University of Wollongong in Australia , said at the intelligence conference .
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By measure out the strontium and atomic number 20 ratio in these coral kernel , the scientist could deduce the pee temperature at the meter of the corals ' growth — the higher the temperature , the lower the Sr - to - Ca proportion . Similarly , the scientists also measure horizontal surface of one rendering , or isotope , of oxygen left behind in the red coral . The high the oxygen-18 substance , the ice chest the body of water temperature .
The scientist focused on the period between January to March , which stigmatize the Australian summer . They found that in the area they read , the sea surface temperatures between 2016 and 2024 were 1.38 F ( 0.77 C ) higher than they were between 1970 to 1990 , and nearly 3 F ( 1.7 C ) higher than the coolest summertime in the four - century dataset .
The raw subject field evince the risk climate change stupefy to the Great Barrier Reef , McGregor said . In aJune 25 decision , UNESCO ’s World Heritage Committee decline to change the reef ’s status from under " serious threat " to the more urgent category , " in peril , " in part because conservationists have done a good occupation protecting the Rand .
But McGregor say the new study clearly shows the problems with the UNESCO determination .
" The science is repoint very clearly to the Reef being in peril , " she said .
While the findings spotlight how desperately emissions ask to be concentrate , " there is a inkling of hope , " Henley tell . If the ocean surface temperature can be kept from increase further , there is a opening of restoring the ecosystem . “We have everything we need to solve this trouble . We just are n’t doing it . We need to act so much quicker . "
