Sydney [Australia], September 1: Coral reefs are experiencing bleaching events so frequently that they no longer have time to recover before the next one strikes, scientists have warned.
Global coral cover is now well below normal levels and at risk of irreversible decline, the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) said in a report released on Monday.
"If we give them enough time, they the capacity to recover," lead author Manuel Gonzalez Rivero said. "But we haven't seen that amount of time being allowed. In fact, the frequency of those bleaching events has pretty much doubled."
Bleaching occurs when corals expel the colourful algae living in their tissues. Without this algae, they become vulnerable to starvation and disease. Bleached coral are not dead, but they need time in cooler water to recover.
"We had 40 years of coral cover around the world that had remained relatively unchanged until 2010," said Gonzalez Rivero, a scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science. "Since 2010, there has been a very steep change." (Agencies)
Source: Qatar Tribune