Due to the climatic phenomenon El Niño, scientists fear a “collapse” of the Great Barrier Reef ecosystem. This biodiversity treasure, located off the coast of Queensland in northeastern Australia, is at risk of extreme bleaching, which involves mass bleaching and coral death, making it significantly more vulnerable. Local scientists warned on Tuesday, July 21, that the reef could also face a “collapse of its ecosystem” due to the impact of El Niño, which ecology researcher Morgan Pratchett from Australia’s James Cook University described as “extreme” during a conference in Auckland, New Zealand.
This natural climatic phenomenon raises the surface water temperature in the central and eastern parts of the equatorial Pacific Ocean and heightens concerns about the future of the world’s largest living structure. This stretch of tropical corals, spanning 2,300 kilometers, has experienced bleaching before. Over the past decades, it has repeatedly suffered from this phenomenon due to warming and acidification of the seas caused by greenhouse gas emissions. However, the current bleaching, as Pratchett warns, could be “very serious and large-scale.”
Threat of Species Extinction and Government Inaction
Morgan Pratchett cautioned that “it cannot be ruled out that the next significant disturbance will lead to localized species extinction.” The survival of corals depends on their symbiosis with a specific type of algae that live in their tissues and provide nutrients through photosynthesis. However, this relationship breaks down when seawater becomes excessively heated. The algae either die or leave the corals, causing them to lose their characteristic color. As a result, corals are deprived of their primary source of nutrients and can gradually die.
During the conference in Auckland, marine research professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg from Australia’s University of Queensland warned that government inaction threatens the future of coral reefs worldwide. “This could be a prelude to the extinction of humanity,” he emphasized, comparing the situation to the sinking of the “Titanic.” “The ship is already starting to sink rapidly, but we don’t notice it.”
Source: Libération
