Twenty-seven years of monitoring show coral cover roughly halved
Analysis of the Long-Term Monitoring Program series reported that mean hard coral cover on surveyed Great Barrier Reef sites fell from 28.0 per cent in 1985 to 13.8 per cent in 2012, and attributed the loss to three causes: about forty-eight per cent to tropical cyclones, forty-two per cent to crown-of-thorns starfish predation, and ten per cent to bleaching. The attribution is the interesting part. Over that particular period bleaching was the smallest of the three, which is why an account of reef decline that mentions only bleaching describes the present rather than the record.
Observed — measured or witnessed, with the observation cited.
Subjects
- Great Barrier Reef · geographic_feature · Australia · not located
- Crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster) · species · Indo-Pacific · not located
- Australian Institute of Marine Science · institution · Australia
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
The 27-year decline of coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef and its causes
Mean hard coral cover on surveyed Great Barrier Reef sites fell from 28.0 per cent in 1985 to 13.8 per cent in 2012, with roughly forty-eight per cent of the loss attributed to tropical cyclones, forty-two per cent to crown-of-thorns starfish and ten per cent to bleaching. V55 verification basis: not consulted; the cover figures and the three attribution percentages are stated from the producing model's knowledge of this widely cited result.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, De'ath, Fabricius, Sweatman and Puotinen; data from the AIMS Long-Term Monitoring Program · 2012 · Partly verified
De'ath, G. et al. (2012), PNAS vol. 109 — analysis of the AIMS Long-Term Monitoring Program series 1985-2012.
Recorded on Great Barrier Reef
- The Great Barrier Reef is inscribed on the World Heritage List
- Mass synchronous spawning described on the Great Barrier Reef
- The Long-Term Monitoring Program begins annual reef surveys
- A measured decline in Great Barrier Reef coral calcification is published
- Twenty-seven years of monitoring show coral cover roughly halved
- Mass bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef
- A second consecutive year of mass bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- A second consecutive year of mass bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef · 2017
- Mass bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef · 2016-03 to 2016-04
- A measured decline in Great Barrier Reef coral calcification is published · 2009-01
- The Long-Term Monitoring Program begins annual reef surveys · 1985
- Mass synchronous spawning described on the Great Barrier Reef · 1984
- The Great Barrier Reef is inscribed on the World Heritage List · 1981