Climate Is Changing the Great Barrier Reef

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120924102506.htm

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Aerial view of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. (Credit: © StrangerView / Fotolia)

ScienceDaily (Sep. 24, 2012) — Satellite measurement of sea surface temperatures has yielded clear evidence of major changes taking place in the waters of Australia's Great Barrier Reef over the past 25 years, marine scientists have found.

The changes have big implications for the future management of the GBR and its marine protected areas say Dr Natalie Ban and Professor Bob Pressey of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University, who led the study with Dr Scarla Weeks from the University of Queensland.

"When we looked back at satellite data collected since 1985, we found evidence that most of the regions of the GBR are changing significantly, in terms of sea surface temperature -- especially in the southern part of the reef," Dr Ban, who is the lead author of a new scientific paper on the issue, says.

"Risk of coral bleaching increases with higher water temperatures. Across the whole reef we found water temperatures increasing by an average of 0.2 of a degree over a quarter of a century -- but the increase was significantly more in some areas.