Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h/t JoNova – the Australian ABC reports scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science are surprised how rapidly the Australian Great Barrier Reef is recovering from the 2016 bleaching event.
Great Barrier Reef starts to recover after severe coral bleaching, survey of sites between Cairns and Townsville shows
By David Chen
Updated Fri at 3:41pm
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Scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science this month surveyed 14 coral reefs between Cairns and Townsville to see how they fared after being bleached.
The institute’s Neil Cantin said they were surprised to find the coral had already started to reproduce.
“We’re finding corals that are showing early signs of reproductive development, really visible eggs that we can see under the naked eye,” Dr Cantin said.
“[It’s] very surprising as previous studies have shown a two-to-three year delay in reproductive activity following bleaching events.
“It means they have enough energy, they’ve recovered the zooxanthellae and the symbiosis and they even have energy to invest in reproduction and egg development.”
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This is a very different narrative to last year;
Great Barrier Reef coral bleaching at 95 per cent in northern section, aerial survey reveals
7.30 By Peter McCutcheon
Updated 28 Mar 2016, 9:12pm
An aerial survey of the northern Great Barrier Reef has shown that 95 per cent of the reefs are now severely bleached — far worse than previously thought.
Professor Terry Hughes, a coral reef expert based at James Cook University in Townsville who led the survey team, said the situation is now critical.
“This will change the Great Barrier Reef forever,” Professor Hughes told 7.30.
“We’re seeing huge levels of bleaching in the northern thousand-kilometre stretch of the Great Barrier Reef.”
Of the 520 reefs he surveyed, only four showed no evidence of bleaching.
From Cairns to the Torres Strait, the once colourful ribbons of reef are a ghostly white.
“It’s too early to tell precisely how many of the bleached coral will die, but judging from the extreme level even the most robust corals are snow white, I’d expect to see about half of those corals die in the coming month or so,” Professor Hughes said.
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“There’s good and bad news — the bottom three quarters of the reef is in strong condition,” he said at the time.
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“Nonetheless we’re looking at 10-year recovery period, so this is a very severe blow.”
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Who could have imagined that an organism which survived hundreds of millions of years of mass extinction events, and thrived during the warm Holocene Optimum would demonstrate noteworthy recovery capabilities?
A coral reef is one giant battle for living space. If a section of reef dies off, that suddenly represents prime real estate that has opened for recolonization.
Wait. Maybe bleaching is a natural cycle. Maybe corals have done this for millions of years. Maybe we being lied to. Nah that’s impossible.
All this based on aerial photos. We knew that was the limit of their ‘science’, good to have it confirmed.
Didn’t Prof Jim Steele show recently that many recent coral bleaching events were caused by sea level fall and corals getting exposed to air?
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/04/05/falling-sea-level-the-critical-factor-in-2016-great-barrier-reef-bleaching/
In the light of the GBR rebound from the bleaching, it’s amusing to remind ourselves of the acrimonious exchange between Jim Steel and our friend Tripp Funderburk, who has made coral dystopia his career:
[quoting the above thread:]
Tripp Funderburk April 11, 2017 at 8:30 pm
Jim Steele, the bird call expert, says: “widescale bleaching not worrisome.” That is one of the dumbest statements I have ever read. The fact that so many sheep believe in this fiction is sad. Bleached corals expel algae that provide 90% of their food. Bleached corals do not grow, they do not reproduce, they have lost their food source and energy. Starving not worrisome? The fact that the denialists are so hopeful that widescale bleaching is not glaring obvious example of the destruction of climate change that they prop up Jim Steele, a nature walk expert, is unseemly. He is a charlatan, and pretending that the Great Barrier Reef is not bleaching due to anything but climate change is poppycock.
[NOTE: according to his Facebook page (linked in his response name section) Tripp has an MBA from Duke University and is the “Director of Operations at Coral Restoration Foundation International”.
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So it seems Tripp is just an policy/politics/business management guy with an interest in diving that found a job after his patron, Rep Bob Livington, imploded and resigned after a series of adulterous affairs made him national news. Other than surroundign himself with people who on this coral foundation, he appears to have no scientific training, unlike Jim Steele, otherwise he would not have to resort to to ad hom attacks on Mr. Steele’s training, and no other substantial arguments. Given coral is his sole source of employment, this famous quote is applicable to Tripp
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!” – Upton Sinclair, 1935
– Anthony Watts]
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That’s because one article is talking about NORTHERN sections of the great barrier reef (i.e. cairns to the top of cape york) and the other about a section from Cairns to Townsville (a couple of 100 miles SOUTH of cairns). Why are all you d’niers such utter morons?
Not only do you know absolutely nothing about climate science, you haven’t got a clue about basic geography.
Climate change, climate change, climate change. Greenhouse gasses in the ozone and yet, the temperatures aren’t changing that much. HOWEVER, thousands of people going down to the coral reefs in their motor boats might not have any effect on those delicate corals. I would think they might be amazed at how nature recovers if they simply restricted motorized boats in the area.
Reblogged this on Climatism and commented:
CORALS evolved during the Cambrian era when atmospheric CO2 levels were at 6,000-7,000 ppm, around 4,000 percent or 20 times higher than today’s “CO2-starved” environment of 400 ppm, with atmospheric and ocean temps temps far higher than today.
CORALS have survived millions of years of dramatic and sudden climate change, yet climate alarmists want us to believe that a few hundred ppm more atmospheric CO2 is going to end us!?
CORAL bleaching is a naturally occurring phenomenon essential to the health and regrowth of coral reefs.
THE “Great Barrier Reef” is only “great” because it has died off at least 7 known times over the millennia.
CORAL reef fear-mongering is another man-made lie to push the man-made global warming aka climate change scam…
https://climatism.wordpress.com/2017/08/28/an-ecologists-plea-to-dr-terry-hughes-the-public-needs-robust-science-regards-coral-bleaching-not-fearmongering/
There is a TV program going to air here in Australia soon on ABC I think and it’s about how science will save the GBR with some sort of biological engineering IIRC. I reckon these “scientists” should just leave it well alone seems to be doing rather well and has been for a lot longer than we’ve been on this rock..
“Remarkable recovery” is what the Aussie tourism lobby demanded.
file this in the same folder as the “Where did all the oil go in the Gulf of Mexico ? stories” …. more “experts” revealing they are mostly ignorant about their chosen field …
The retraction of the headline news is always on page B9.
This is entirely expected by all who are aware of the dynamics of the GRB Wars. AIMS (Australian Institute of Marine Science) does real unbiased research and publishes something closer to the truth a month or two after the so-called ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University issues yet-another “all is lost — the reef is dead” cry for global warming alarm.
This has been going on so long that it is a standing joke to those on the sidelines of Australian science.
Aligning on the side of truth and justice in Australia is the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) which is the government agency responsible for protecting and managing the reef.
There is no doubt that the two consecutive years of bleaching events have damaged portions of the reef and that the typhoon added to the havoc.
But like forests after a wildfire, the reefs will repopulate and rejuvenate — on their own time scale. It can be heartbreaking to visit a forest recently burned off by fire — but the Springs to come bring forth wildflowers, new growth, and the beauty of the young forest — an essential environmental niche for many plants and animals unsuited for life in a mature forest. I suspect the same is true for the GBR and other reefs around the world.
Bleaching events and powerful storms not only damage but also present the reef with the opportunity of a new start, with different species in different developmental stages.
Visited Great Barrier Reef near Cairns in March of 2017. Beautiful. Consensus of local divers was that bleaching is normal in hotter years for coral near the surface. If the seas haven’t risen fast enough to keep the coral covered (like after the last ice age) it thrives at deeper depths. Plus freshly bleached coral (within one year) is a ready host for newly spawned coral.
One did.