Half of coral lost from the Great Barrier Reef

A new study shows that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has lost more than 50% of its coral cover in the past 27 years. Researchers attribute the decline to bleaching, coral-feeding starfish, and storms–all linked to climate change. The findings were drawn from the world’s largest reef monitoring project which involved 2258 separate surveys over 27 years. Scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) stated that coral recovery takes 10-20 years and presently, intervals between coral disturbances were too short to allow for a full recovery.