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Australia’s Great Barrier Reef suffers ‘extreme’ coral bleaching
There are 'winners' and 'losers' among corals as they respond to the accumulating impacts of climate change.
Mia Hoogenboom/ ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
There are variations in the appearance of severely bleached corals. Here, the coral displays pink fluorescing tissue signalling heat stress.
Gergely Torda/ ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
The different color morphs of Acropora millepora, each exhibiting a bleaching response during mass coral bleaching event.
Gergely Torda/ ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
A bleached Acropora colony.
Gergely Torda/ ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
A severely bleached branching coral amongst the minimally bleached boulder coral.
Gergely Torda/ ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
Dramatic coral bleaching, seen in Australia's Great Barrier Reef from March 2016.
XL Catlin Seaview Survey
Some of the bleaching of reefs in the northern section has been described as "extreme."
XL Catlin Seaview Survey
Bleaching occurs when the marine algae that live inside corals die. Of the reefs surveyed in the northern third of the Great Barrier Reef, 81% are characterized as "severely bleached."
XL Catlin Seaview Survey
"At some reefs, the final death toll is likely to exceed 90%," Andrew Baird, of the ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, says.
WWF
A photo taken on September 22, 2014, shows bleached coral on the Reef, a key Australian tourist attraction.
WILLIAM WEST/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Tourism on the Great Barrier Reef generates an annual income of A$5 billion ($3.9 billion) and employs nearly 70,000 people.
WWF
Of the reefs surveyed in the northern third of the Reef, 81% are characterized as "severely bleached."
WILLIAM WEST/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Driven by ocean temperatures that have been 1-2 degrees Celsius (1.8-3.6° F) above average, the bleaching event has left large sections of coral drained of all color and fighting for survival.
WILLIAM WEST/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
The Reef has suffered two mass bleaching events, in 1998 and 2002, but the extent of the bleaching in these years was less severe than in 2016.