The Reef Beneath

Reefs are important marine environments produced by colonial coelenterates, living in symbiosis with algae. Climate change is heating up the planet's oceans. When seawaters become too hot the algae leave their hosts and the reefs bleach and often die. In the 1990's Ove Hoegh-Guldberg (now of the University of Queensland) was labelled an 'alarmist', when his models suggested that global heating-assisted bleaching would decimate many reefs ( https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/25/prof-ove-hoegh-guldberg-scientist-great-barrier-reef-coral-bleaching-causes-effects-climate-change-crisis-ocean-heating-warming). In the 2020's, Hoegh-Guldberg's models confirmed that some reefs would bleach 6 or more times per decade. This frequency is too high to give these habitats time to recover. Hoegh-Guldberg suggests that, by 2040-2050, the temperatures will result in bleaching occurring every year. In many parts of the world, this would mean the disappearance of coral reefs. Australia's Great Barrier Reef could be a prominent victim.