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Posted 09 Mar 2024

Updated 25 Mar 2024

2 min read

  • Before this event, GBR has suffered mass coral bleaching in 1998, 2002, 2016, 2017, 2020, and 2022.
  • Bleaching occurs when healthy corals become stressed by spikes in ocean temperatures, causing them to expel algae living in their tissues, which drains them of their vibrant colours.

 

  • Causes of Mass Bleaching events 
    • Climate change induced warming. Example, Current underwater heatwave is most intense in southern GBR, which is most affected by bleaching.
    • Rising frequency of El Nino increases frequency and severity of mass-bleaching events.
    • Lack of wind and currents may result in less mixing of water layers, clearer seas, and deeper penetration of solar irradiance, which can intensify bleaching.
    • Other causes: Extremely low tides, Pollution, Overexposure to sunlight, etc.

 

  • GBR stretches for more than 2,300 kilometres along the northeast coast of Australia.
    • It is the world's largest coral reef complex, located in Pacific Ocean.
    • It was declared a World Heritage Area in 1981.
    • This reef structure is composed of and built by billions of tiny organisms, known as coral polyps.

 

Coral reefs

  • They are made up of colonies of thousands of tiny individual corals, called polyps. These marine invertebrate animals have hard exoskeletons made of calcium carbonate.
  • In India, Coral reefs are present in Gulf of Kutch, Gulf of Mannar, Andaman & Nicobar, Lakshadweep Islands and Malvan (in Maharashtra).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Tags :
  • Great Barrier Reef
  • Mass Bleaching
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