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Nicholas Lee

Instructor: Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1104

November 1, 2017

Coral Bleaching: Is the Death of the Great Barrier Reef Closer Than Expected?

An epidemic is breaking out in eastern Australia. The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is seeing

huge amounts of coral bleaching. Coral bleaching occurs when the skeletal structure of coral,

which is made of calcium carbonate, expels all the algae from it. This leads to a white color of

the coral, and can lead to the mortality of the structure. Why is the coral bleaching occurring?

This question caused several scientists to conduct research on the GBR to find the answer. The

problem is, there are several different views on what could have caused the issue. One thing all

the scientists agree on however, is that climate change is real, and it is affecting the health of the

GBR, along with all the animals it harbors.

History of the Great Barrier Reef

Before looking at the current issues facing the GBR, one must first understand the past

that the reef has faced. The reef is comprised of 2900 individual reefs, making it the largest reef

system in the world, so large that it is visible from space. The coral is composed of calcium

carbonate and living polyps, as well as the algae that provides nutrients for the corals. The

modern GBRs origin stems from the Pleistocene period, when glacial melting due to the

warming of the earth occurred around 10,000 years ago. There are still coral structures present
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on the lee of the ribbon reefs where the first carbonate began to form the current GBR. However,

there were reefs before this time in this area of Australia. They were not made of the same

calcium carbonate that reefs are made of today, with the majority made form large sea sponges

and other ancient creatures. Today, the GBR is comprised of skeletal structures made of calcium

carbonate, with living polyps that attach themselves to the structure causing the reef to grow.

There have been several mass extinctions on the GBR. The reef has been plagued with

low sea level, changes in sea temperatures, and other anomalies that have disrupted the

equilibrium of the reef. In the past, the reef has always rebounded, but with a new face and a new

dominant coral source. Most of these mass extinctions occurred when the Earth went through

drastic climate change, whether it was an ice age or time of extreme heat in the dinosaur age.

Currently, there is talk that another mass extinction is affecting the coral on the GBR. There have

been three major mass bleaching since 1998. The bleaching that occurred in 1998 left an average

of 43% bleached, in 2002 there was and average of 56% bleached, and in 2016 we saw a very

rapid increase of bleaching with almost 85% of reefs showing some sign of bleaching.

What Are the Causes?

Dr. Terry P. Hughes, Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and Director of the

ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies as well as a professor at James Cook

University, is currently the loudest voice on the stance of warming water temperatures causing

the bleaching of the GBR. He was considered one of the top 10 most important people in 2016

by Nature. Dr. Hughes has been conducting research on the GBR for several years now, and

claims that he has never seen any coral bleaching event to the magnitude like the one

experienced on Australias east coast last summer. In a section of reef above Cairns, the

mortality rate ranged from 47-83% of corals dying. Dr. Hughes believes there is a correlation of
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the water temperatures on the GBR being well above average, with the current state of the coral

bleaching. He conducted research on this hypothesis, and the results are startling. Dr. Hughes

uses a term called Degree Heating Weeks (DHW) which is used to describe a week of the

summer where the water temperature is above the average for that time of the year. Before 2016,

the average amount of stress on the coral was 1-8 DHW, where as in 2016 we see that over 30%

of the reefs experienced 8-16 DHW. 75% of the reefs that experienced this very high number of

DHW saw extreme coral bleaching (over 30% bleached).

Hotter water temperatures are being blamed as the main culprit of the coral bleaching by

several scientists. J.E.N. Veron, who is known as the author of several marine biology works as

well as discovering more than 20 of the worlds coral species, is also a believer in the high-water

temperatures around the GBR to be the cause of the coral bleaching. However, in his book A

Reef in Time he discusses how the coral bleaching could be caused by other sources. One source

of the coral bleaching he believes to be the impure water quality of rivers dumping pollutants

into the Pacific Ocean. He has also conducted research on chemical imbalances that have

changed the pH level in the ocean. Corals require a very specific pH, and any variation in this pH

level can cause them to shed the algae that they require to live. In saying this, Veron writes that

the release of greenhouse gas is a main cause of the coral bleaching. He does not use the typical

Carbon Dioxide as the main culprit however. In A Reef in Time, Veron writes about greenhouse

gasses such as methane that is 22 times more potent than Carbon Dioxide. This, as well as

synthetic chemicals being released into the atmosphere are trapping solar radiation causing the

temperatures to rise.

A study conducted by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United

States of America challenges the research conducted by Dr. Hughes, and builds on the ocean
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acidification that Veron discusses in his book. They believe that the acidification of the ocean is

due to the diffusion of Carbon Dioxide into the ocean. The ocean is a natural cash of chemicals,

and when it gets stirred up from a storm the chemicals diffuse into the water. The Academy of

Science claims that more than 30% of all carbon dioxide released by humans is absorbed into

the ocean. A more acidic ocean is known to dissolve the calcium carbonate that is used to build

the coral structures. The team conducted research on Heron Island, found on the GBR system,

and its surrounding reefs to look at the effect of Carbon Dioxide in the water. The research first

studied the effect of mortality of coral and rate of coral bleaching when exposed to high levels of

ocean acidification as well as the effect of growth rates when a lower pH is present. The results

were staggering. The coral they chose to focus on was the Acropora species, known for its fast

growth rate. They found that in the Acropora coral, higher levels of exposure to CO2 resulted in

more bleaching than a rise in temperature. The research also showed considerable slowing in the

growth rate, which led to a change in the way the coral structure was built. This research is the

strongest contradiction to the temperature change theory and is thought to be a bigger risk to the

reef, because the reef would not be able to rebuild unless the pH of the water went back to the

equilibrium the coral required.

In Conclusion

The Great Barrier Reef is under attack. It faces several environmental and pollution

threats that could possibly lead to its death. Many marine biologists have dedicated their careers

to finding possible causes to the coral bleaching of the GBR, as well as many other reefs around

the world. Since the first modern coral reefs have appeared, there have been several global scale

mass bleachings. The GBR was thought to be going extinct over time, and many scientists

believed that it would be mostly dead by 2050. However, with the recent coral bleaching of the
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summer of 2016, and the predicted mass bleaching of the summer of 2017, Australias natural

wonder is now looking at a much shorter future.

Looking at the research conducted by several scientists, who look at several different

possible sources for the bleaching of the GBR, it is becoming evident that it is a human made

issue. There are natural causes to the bleaching such as the Queen-Of-Thorns starfish, as well as

the natural warming and cooling of the earth, but the current scale of the bleaching is not

indicative of this. The large influx of Carbon Dioxide as well as other greenhouse gasses caused

by the burning of fossil fuels and other forms of pollutants is killing the most biodiverse

ecosystem of our planets.

While several scientists believe there is only one main source of the coral bleaching, it is

evident that there are several sources leading to the mortality of the corals. The globe is warming

due to Carbon Dioxide and other greenhouse gasses such as methane. The ocean is becoming

more acidic from the diffusing of Carbon Dioxide into it. There are also several other smaller

issues such as sea level change, oil pollution, and acid rain that are also adding more weight

behind the punch being dealt to the 4th natural wonder of the world. Will the reef be able to

rebound? It has in the past, and it is likely to in the future, but it will have a different look than

the modern reef we know today. While there is research being done on what we can do to slow

the bleaching, there is only so much we can do to reverse it. The big question has changed from

Is the Great Barrier Reef Dying, to How much longer do we have with this natural wonder in

Australias back yard?

Bibliography

Anthony, K.R.N., D.I. Kline, G. Diaz-Pulido, S. Dove, and O. Hoegh-Guldberg. Proceedings of

the National Academy of Science of the United States of America, 26 Sept 2008,

www.pnas.org/content/105/45/17442.full

Cave, Damien and Justin Gills. Large Sections of Australias Great Reef Are Now Dead,

Scientists Find. New York Times, 15 March 2017.

www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/science/great-barrier-reef-coral-climate-change-

dieoff.html. Accessed 27 Sept 2017.

Hughes, Terry P. Global warming and recurrent mass bleaching of corals. Nature, VOL 543,

Macmillan Publishers Limited, 16 March 2017 Nature Journal. Accessed 27 Sept 2017.

Veron, J.E.N. A Reef in Time. Mary Stafford-Smith, Belknap Press, March 2010. 27 Sept. 2017.