Warning of the risk of collapse of the Great Barrier Reef

Auckland – AFP – Two prominent scientists have warned that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef faces the threat of a severe and widespread coral bleaching event this year, driven by the impacts of the El Niño climate phenomenon, which could escalate into an “ecosystem collapse.”

Stretching 2,300 kilometers along the coast of Queensland, the Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system.

The reef narrowly avoided being placed on UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger, although the organization has expressed “grave concern” over its bleaching and the impacts of climate change.

Morgan Pratchett, a marine ecologist at James Cook University in Queensland, said during a seminar in Auckland, New Zealand, that the strong El Niño event poses a serious concern.

He added, “It is not unlikely that the next major disturbance could lead to the local extinction of species in some areas... and a widespread collapse of this ecosystem.”

This year’s El Niño is expected to set records for intensity, causing sea surface temperatures to rise in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, which triggers global changes in wind patterns, atmospheric pressure, and rainfall.

UNESCO has been monitoring the Great Barrier Reef since 2021, when it warned that the 2,300-kilometer-long reef, one of the world’s premier tourist destinations, might be placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a professor of marine studies at the University of Queensland, stated that governments’ failure to take urgent action threatens the future of coral reefs worldwide.