The coral reef around Australia’s coast is among the longest in the world. The largest, and perhaps most recognized, is the Great Barrier Reef, which stretches over 2,300 kilometers along the country’s north-east coast.
But also further south, for example around Tasmania and the southern parts of the states of New South Wales and Victoria, you can find unique reefs with species that only exist in those areas.
Researchers have now collected data from three different Australian monitoring programs in the reef around Australia, it writes Australian channel 7 News.
Holiday paradise forbids sunscreen
Characterized by heat waves
The results show that several of the basic species are decreasing considerably. Among other things, due to global warming, the study, published in Nature, confirms.
Fifty-seven percent of the 1,057 most common catfish species, including both tropical fish species and invertebrates, that were examined suffered a decline from 2008 to 2021, according to the study.
The decline of the species is said to have been particularly great in the years that were characterized by heat waves and where the water rose by more than half a degree.
The researchers behind the study claim that as many as 28 species, which are unique to Australia, could qualify as “critically endangered” after suffering a decline of more than 80 per cent.
In addition, 110 species can be considered threatened with a decline of over 50 per cent, and 158 species are vulnerable with a decline of 30 per cent, writes 7 News.
On the other hand, the study also shows that 55 coral species have not had a significant change during the last decade.
This shall apply, among other things, to tropical coral populations. These species are said to have increased in the north-east, but decreased in the north-west.
However, the researchers warn that these findings must be seen in the context of a general decline over the past 45 years.
Study: Massive damage
– Catastrophe tap
Among them study author Graham Edgar from the University of Tasmania.
He believes the findings must be seen together with the big picture.
Edgar tells 7 News that there is no systematic monitoring of most of the species included in the recent analysis, and that losses are therefore not controlled.
– We have catastrophic losses of especially some of the cooler water species outside Tasmania, which are basically not recognized and managed, explains Edgar.
He says that the cool waters around Tasmania, off the state of Victoria and the southern parts of New South Wales are changing as a result of the climate, and that water temperatures in these areas have increased by about 1.5 degrees since the 1940s.
Fear another planet
Threatened
– When temperatures rise, you get warmer water species from northern areas that move south and crowd out the species in the southern areas.
South of Tasmania, there is nowhere for the species to retreat, and species that are found nowhere else in the world are becoming extinct, according to Edgar, who says that approximately 70 percent of the species in the Great Southern Reef are only found off the Australian coast.
In a study from 2021, it was established that 98 percent of the popular Great Barrier Reef is affected by coral bleaching.
In 2022, a grim State of the Environment report was also presented which showed how Australia’s unique diversity of species was at risk of extinction following a series of bushfires, drought, global warming and habitat loss.
