Generally cooler La Niña conditions mean hard corals have recovered significant ground, regrowing from very low levels after a decade of cumulative disturbances to record high levels in 2022 across two-thirds of the reef.
To take the pulse of the Great Barrier Reef, one indicator we use is hard coral cover.
Many reefs had a high proportion of Acropora corals, of which the best known are the staghorn and plate corals.
Overall, the record high hard coral cover seen last year was welcome news, representing recovery across much of the Reef in the absence of common coral killers.
Published today, AIMS’ Annual Summary Report on Coral Reef Condition for 2022/23 found that while some reefs continued to recover, their increased hard coral cover was offset by coral loss on other reefs.
“The 2022 coral bleaching event was not as severe as the 2016 or 2017 events but caused enough mortality to pause recent regional gains in hard coral cover. The heat stress during the bleaching event also likely had sub-lethal effects, including reductions in coral growth and reproduction,” Dr Wachenfeld said.
Dr Emslie noted the increased frequency of mass coral bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef with four occurring since 2016.
Dr Wachenfeld added: “The best hope for the future of the Great Barrier Reef and all coral reefs globally requires reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to stabilise temperatures, best practice management of local pressures, and the development of interventions to help boost climate tolerance and resilience for coral reefs.”
The LTMP quantifies long term trends in the status of coral communities across the Great Barrier Reef.
The Great Barrier Reef’s latest report card shows mass bleaching during what should have been a cooler year has halted coral recovery across two-thirds of the reef.
But it was also the first to occur under a La Niña weather pattern.
The findings have caused great alarm among climate watchers. Healthy coral in the Great Barrier Reef is getting harder to find.
The Great Barrier Reef’s first mass bleaching event in what should have been a cooler year has halted coral recovery across two-thirds of the site.
“This pause indicates that a mass bleaching event, even if less severe, with low mortality, is still enough to put the brakes on this coral recovery,” he says.
Reef scientists are nervous about what might be in store this summer, with international weather agencies declaring the arrival of El Nino, a weather pattern that can drive high ocean temperatures, and hot, dry conditions in Australia.
UN scientific advisers have demanded urgent, sustained action to protect the reef from climate and other threats, but a week ago recommended Australia be given more time to avoid an in-danger listing for the World Heritage site.
The Australian Institute of Marine Science report said hard coral cover in the northern section of the reef was down about one per cent to 35.7 per cent.
In effect, the Middle Arm project, and others like it, are grand experiments with our climate.
Over the past two decades, international climate policy has increasingly shifted towards a circular model of managing carbon emissions.
We analysed how the federal and NT governments have sought to implement circular carbon policies, including through the Middle Arm development.
In 2021, the then Coalition government released a climate plan in which more than half the carbon savings would be achieved via carbon offsets, as well as unspecified “Technology breakthroughs”.
Looking ahead. The goal of Australian governments to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 increasingly relies on gambits such as the Middle Arm precinct and speculative methods for offsetting and burying emissions.
Bird experts are concerned a multi-million-dollar redevelopment of a harbour in Western Australia’s South West will disrupt the nesting of a vulnerable bird species.
“The breakwater is scheduled to go exactly on the site where the fairy terns set up their colony in the summer of 2022-23 and the earthworks will be terribly disruptive … it’s a big deterrent for the birds,” she said.
“Ideally, we would really love to be able to have that habitat remain … it’s behind the fence, it’s high above the water on a rocky, shelly, lovely substrate where eggs and chicks blend into the environment,” she says.
Nixon has seen dry years before, but he is worried about what might be ahead for communities in eastern Victoria after the hottest, driest winter on record.
Parts of eastern Victoria have seen the driest winter in more than 160 years.
"It looks very similar to the drought years that we had four, five years ago."We haven’t had a lot of rain.
Gabo Island, off the coast of Victoria’s easternmost point, received its lowest July rain in 163 years of records.
BOM senior climatologist Jonathan Pollock said this year delivered Victoria’s sixth-warmest July for maximum temperatures in 114 years of data with Gippsland and parts of north-eastern Victoria experiencing the most extreme weather.
Tony Chappel still recalls the mood in his office the day he was confronted by residents living near a New South Wales gold and copper mine.
“I actually think the problem is so beyond any regulator’s experience or expectation that it took us a very long time to get people to the table,” Ms Retallack said.
As residents wait for the results, at the direction of the EPA Cadia released its own report on whether the lead found in rainwater tanks matched its ore.
“I think the proponent procuring that analysis is fine,” Mr Chappel said.
The NSW Planning Minister Paul Scully declined 7.30’s requests for an interview.
“The NSW government is committed to making sure the Cadia mine minimises its environmental impacts.”