Coral Bleaching

Coral bleaching is the loss of colour from corals under stressful environmental conditions. While any stress can cause corals to bleach, high water temperature has been the major cause of coral bleaching events worldwide in recent decades . In 1998 and again in 2002, a major bleaching event in reef waters of the Great Barrier Reef raised concerns about the long-term health of the reef. With predictions of continued rising temperatures as a result of global warming, the future of tropical corals reefs is causing concern worldwide .

To explore this issue more view the following:

 The latest condition of the reef

 The online modelling of future coral bleaching impacts

 A page by page explanation of the coral bleaching phenomenon

 Interactive webmaps showing a variety of themes about bleaching

Photo by Ray Berkelmans, AIMS

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