Climate change is attacking the world's coral reefs and more will disappear if oceans keep warming, according to a study by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network
The study by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network , a U.N.-supported global data network, showed that 14% of the world's coral on reefs was already lost between 2009 and 2018, equal to about 11,700 square kilometers, an area 2.5 times the size of Grand Canyon National Park.
Corals face an "existential crisis," scientists said, as sea surface temperatures rise. The report spanned data for 40 years, 73 countries and 12,000 sites. Sharp spikes in warming are particularly damaging, a phenomenon scientists say is linked to human-caused climate change. The study looked at 10 coral reef-bearing regions around the world and found that loss was mainly attributed to, which happens when corals, under stress from warmer water, expel the colorful algae living in their tissues, making them turn white. One severe bleaching event in 1998 alone killed 8% of the world's corals, the study said.
The hardest hit areas are South Asia, Australia, the Pacific, East Asia, the Western Indian Ocean, the Gulf and Gulf of Oman.The sunlight illuminates a coral reef in the Red Sea near the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, December 15, 2019. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File PhotoOverfishing, unsustainable coastal development and declining water quality are other factors battering the reefs.
"There are clearly unsettling trends toward coral loss, and we can expect these to continue as warming persists," said Paul Hardisty, chief executive of the Australian Institute of Marine Science, in a statement shared by the United Nations.
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