Most colored coral reefs in the world become white in standard bleaching

The world’s coral reefs in the world have become white in the seas all over the world.

The “most intense coral reef laidity event ever” has achieved 84 percent of the world’s coral reefs and is continuing, International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI)-On Wednesday, a global partnership between nations and NGOs and international organizations that focus on the sustainable management of coral reefs on Wednesday.

The new number is much worse than the previous events, which amounted to 21 to 68 percent of coral reefs.

But scientists say that coral reefs and coral reefs have not yet been dead, and they can still apostasy if people take the right steps, including preservation and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Coral reefs are small marine animals that live in colonies with colored symbiotic algae that give them the colors of the rainbow and provide them with most of their food. But when the water becomes very warm for a very long time, algae release toxic compounds, expels coral reefs, leaving behind a white skeleton – causing “bleaching”.

The current global bleaching event, the fourth since 1998, began in January 2023, to collide with different parts of the world at different times during the past two years, in the middle of two years Shattered temperatures in the ocean.

Be A global bleaching event was announced in April 2024. Last year, the land The heat on the recordOceans He also broke the recordAnd multiply the average annual sea surface temperature 20.87 ° C away from the columns.

No end on the horizon?

The fact that the matter continues after two years, they take coral reefs in the world “to the immovable water.”

She said: “In the past, many coral reefs around the world have managed to recover from severe events such as bleaching or storms.”

But the length of this whitening event and the fact that it reduces longer than the day worries coral scientists.

Mark Ecin, the Secretary of the International Reef Cover Association and the retired president of the coral reef monitoring program in the National Oceanic and Calf Administration, said it is an open question when the current whitening ends.

“We may not see thermal stress that causes a decrease in whitening below the threshold that leads to a global event,” it is I told Associated Press.

Valeria Bizaro, a researcher at the Berry Non -Navy Institute for Marine Sciences, who studies coral reefs in the Caribbean region, said that bleaching was sometimes taking place at the end of the summer, when the water was in its warmest.

But the current event started in its area in July, and the temperatures are already 30 ° C to 32 ° C, when it is usually 28 ° C at this time of the year.

She was also damaged by very common types, adding, “This is shocking.”

Nicolas Smith, a assistant professor of biology at the University of Concordia in Montreal, who is also studying the reefs of the coral in the Caribbean region, indicated that the international governmental committee on climate change has expected this Coral reefs will decrease from 70 to 90 percent If the global temperature rises to 1.5 ° C above pre -industry temperatures.

“We see him playing in front of our eyes,” she said. “This is what it will look like, not only in the summer during bleaching, but throughout the year.”

Smith said that the loss of coral reefs could harm many fish and other marine creatures.

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“It literally provides thousands of other types with habitats as well as food, as well as shelter and sites for reproduction.”

Icri said not only a third of marine life depends on coral reefs, but also a billion people – directly and indirectly – for things like food, tourism and protecting from storms. It is estimated that it contributes 10 trillion dollars to the global economy.

It is not yet dead

However, ICRI believes that coral reefs still survive this century if people take preservation measures and cut greenhouse gas emissions to slow down warming in the ocean. Other scientists say despite the dark news, coral reefs can often stand up and bounce of bleaching.

Melanie McField, the founder and director of non -profit coral reefs that are based in Florida, said, even without the symbiotic algae that gives food, coral reefs out to death very slowly.

“It usually takes months,” she said. “They are a kind of knocking. Part of it is alive, it’s partially dead.”

Even if the coral dies, other coral reef organisms such as sponge and pink algae on which they live.

“The Australians call them dead. So you still have coral reefs, you still have some fish around it,” said McVeld. “Everything is a kind of brown and gray.”

But coral reefs are weak at this stage, as sponge, worms and other creatures eat in coral, which no longer rebuilds themselves.

“Then when this hurricane comes, it turns into ruins,” said McField.

She said this could be frightening for people who live on the coasts protected by coral reefs: “It is life and security.”

ICRI estimates that to save coral reefs and people who depend on them, spending on solutions needs to increase seven times. Things that can help include selective education, recovery of coral, reducing pollution and stopping overfishing.

McField said that so far, there are many of these strategies “very small efforts at this time”, and more of them are needed.

But maintaining the global temperature is less than 1.5 ° C as much as possible, “it is necessary to give these coral conservation measures an opportunity to work,” Icri said.

McField agrees. “You can get all these efforts at 1.5, 1.6 or 1.7, but maybe not 2 …. Don’t go beyond that (or) I am not sure that we will be able to save them.”