Great Barrier Reef suffers worst coral decline on record
The 'underwater bushfire' cooking Australia's reefsA really simple guide to climate change
AIMS surveyed the health of 124 coral reefs between August 2024 and May 2025. It has been performing surveys since 1986.Often dubbed the world's largest living structure, the Great Barrier Reef is a 2,300km (1,429-mile) expanse of tropical corals that houses a stunning array of biodiversity. Repeated bleaching events are turning vast swaths of once-vibrant coral white.Coral is vital to the planet. Nicknamed the sea's architect, it builds vast structures that house an estimated 25% of all marine species.Bleaching happens when coral gets stressed and turns white because the water it lives in is too hot.
Stressed coral will probably die if it experiences temperatures 1C (1.8F) above its thermal limit for two months. If waters are 2C higher, it can survive around one month.Unusually warm tropical waters triggered widespread coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef in 2024 and in the first few months of 2025, the sixth such event since 2016.As well as climate change, natural weather patterns like El Nino can also play a role in mass bleaching events.The reef has "experienced unprecedented levels of heat stress, which caused the most spatially extensive and severe bleaching recorded to date," the report found.Any recovery could take years and was dependent on future coral reproduction and minimal environmental disturbance, according to the report.In the latest AIMS survey results, the most affected coral species were the Acropora, which are susceptible to heat stress and a favoured food of the crown-of-thorns starfish."These corals are the fastest to grow and are the first to go," AIMS research lead Dr Mike Emslie told ABC News."The Great Barrier Reef is such a beautiful, iconic place, it's really, really worth fighting for. And if we can give it a chance, it's shown an inherent ability to recover," he said.
There has been some success with the Australian government's crown-of-thorns starfish culling programme, which has killed over 50,000 starfish by injecting them with vinegar or ox bile."Due to crown-of-thorns starfish control activities, there were no potential, established, or severe outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish recorded on Central GBR reefs in 2025," the AIMS report noted.The creatures are native to the Great Barrier Reef and are capable of eating vast amounts of coral. But since the 1960s their numbers have increased significantly, with nutrients from land-based agriculture run-off regarded as the most likely cause.
Richard Leck from the global environmental charity WWF said the report shows that the reef is an "ecosystem under incredible stress" and scientists are concerned about what happens when "the reef does not keep bouncing back the way it has," he told news agency AFP.Leck said some coral reefs around the world are already beyond recovery, warning the Great Barrier Reef could suffer the same fate without ambitious and rapid climate action.The Great Barrier Reef has been heritage-listed for over 40 years, but Unesco warns the Australian icon is "in danger" from warming seas and pollution.
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Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Australia's Great Barrier Reef suffers record coral decline following mass bleaching
SYDNEY, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Australia's Great Barrier Reef has suffered the largest decline in coral cover in two of its three regions over the last year, research released on Wednesday showed, following a mass bleaching of its corals that was among the worst on record. The Australian Institute of Marine Sciences said the reef has experienced the largest annual decline in coral cover in its northern and southern regions since monitoring began 39 years ago, with coral cover dropping between a quarter and a third after several years of solid growth. "We are now seeing increased volatility in the levels of hard coral cover," said Mike Emslie, head of institute's long term monitoring programme. "This is a phenomenon that emerged over the last 15 years and points to an ecosystem under stress." The reef, the world's largest living ecosystem, stretches for some 2,400 km (1,500 miles) off the coast of the northern state of Queensland. Since 2016, the reef has experienced five summers of mass coral bleaching, when large sections of the reef turn white due to heat stress, putting them at greater risk of death. The 2024 event had the largest footprint ever recorded on the reef, with high to extreme bleaching across all of its three regions, the report said. The Great Barrier Reef is not currently on UNESCO's list of world heritage sites that are in danger, though the UN recommends it should be added. Australia has lobbied for years to keep the reef - which contributes A$6.4 billion ($4.2 billion) to the economy annually - off the endangered list, as it could damage tourism.
BBC News
6 hours ago
- BBC News
Great Barrier Reef suffers worst coral decline on record
Parts of the Great Barrier Reef have suffered the largest annual decline in coral cover since records began nearly 40 years ago, according to a new and southern branches of the sprawling Australian reef both suffered their most widespread coral bleaching, the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) have been battered in recent months by tropical cyclones and outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish that feast on coral, but heat stress driven by climate change is the predominant reason, AIMS warns the habitat may reach a tipping point where coral cannot recover fast enough between catastrophic events and faces a "volatile" future. The 'underwater bushfire' cooking Australia's reefsA really simple guide to climate change AIMS surveyed the health of 124 coral reefs between August 2024 and May 2025. It has been performing surveys since dubbed the world's largest living structure, the Great Barrier Reef is a 2,300km (1,429-mile) expanse of tropical corals that houses a stunning array of biodiversity. Repeated bleaching events are turning vast swaths of once-vibrant coral is vital to the planet. Nicknamed the sea's architect, it builds vast structures that house an estimated 25% of all marine happens when coral gets stressed and turns white because the water it lives in is too hot. Stressed coral will probably die if it experiences temperatures 1C (1.8F) above its thermal limit for two months. If waters are 2C higher, it can survive around one warm tropical waters triggered widespread coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef in 2024 and in the first few months of 2025, the sixth such event since well as climate change, natural weather patterns like El Nino can also play a role in mass bleaching reef has "experienced unprecedented levels of heat stress, which caused the most spatially extensive and severe bleaching recorded to date," the report recovery could take years and was dependent on future coral reproduction and minimal environmental disturbance, according to the the latest AIMS survey results, the most affected coral species were the Acropora, which are susceptible to heat stress and a favoured food of the crown-of-thorns starfish."These corals are the fastest to grow and are the first to go," AIMS research lead Dr Mike Emslie told ABC News."The Great Barrier Reef is such a beautiful, iconic place, it's really, really worth fighting for. And if we can give it a chance, it's shown an inherent ability to recover," he said. There has been some success with the Australian government's crown-of-thorns starfish culling programme, which has killed over 50,000 starfish by injecting them with vinegar or ox bile."Due to crown-of-thorns starfish control activities, there were no potential, established, or severe outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish recorded on Central GBR reefs in 2025," the AIMS report creatures are native to the Great Barrier Reef and are capable of eating vast amounts of coral. But since the 1960s their numbers have increased significantly, with nutrients from land-based agriculture run-off regarded as the most likely cause. Richard Leck from the global environmental charity WWF said the report shows that the reef is an "ecosystem under incredible stress" and scientists are concerned about what happens when "the reef does not keep bouncing back the way it has," he told news agency said some coral reefs around the world are already beyond recovery, warning the Great Barrier Reef could suffer the same fate without ambitious and rapid climate Great Barrier Reef has been heritage-listed for over 40 years, but Unesco warns the Australian icon is "in danger" from warming seas and pollution.
The Guardian
10 hours ago
- The Guardian
Research into Australian skinks' resistance to snake venom could streamline design of antivenoms
Australian skinks have evolved the means to resist snake venom by shutting down their muscles, suggests new research which could help to inform future treatments for snakebites. Research led by the University of Queensland has found that multiple species of Australian skink have evolved venom resistance through changes to a critical muscle receptor. In other animals, the receptor is the target of venom neurotoxins, which cause rapid paralysis and death. Sign up: AU Breaking News email Study co-author Prof Bryan Fry, who leads UQ's adaptive biotoxicology lab, said that when venomous snakes arrived in Australia 25 to 30m years ago from Asia that skinks would have been their prey, resulting in evolutionary pressure to evolve venom resistance. 'What was fascinating was that with the kind of mutations that we documented in the Australian … skinks that gave rise to resistance are the kind of mutations that we've seen in other animals outside Australia,' Fry said. Mongooses, which feed on cobras, are one such example. The researchers showed that the Australian major skink, Bellatorias frerei had the same mutation that gave the honey badger its resistance to cobra venom. The researchers looked at 47 skink species and found that 13 of these were resistant to snake venom. Of these 13 species, some had multiple types of resistance, leading the researchers to discover that the skinks had developed independent mutations conferring resistance on 25 occasions. Fry said the researchers used tissue banks from museums across Australia rather than testing venom on live skinks. Study co-author and UQ researcher Dr Uthpala Chandrasekara said in a statement: 'We used synthetic peptides and receptor models to mimic what happens when venom enters an animal at the molecular level and the data was crystal clear, some of the modified receptors simply didn't respond at all.' 'It's fascinating to think that one tiny change in a protein can mean the difference between life and death when facing a highly venomous predator. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'The more we learn about how venom resistance works in nature, the more tools we have for the design of novel antivenoms.' Dr Andrew Amey, collection manager of amphibians, reptiles and herpetology at Queensland Museum, who was not involved in the research, said that there were more than 470 currently recognised species of Australian skink, with more being discovered all the time – with little known about them. 'It is great to see research looking into how they deal with such an important predator that just might tell us more about how we can manage the effects of snakebite ourselves,' Amey said. The study was published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.
