AFRICA: The study, led by Australian marine scientists Nicholas Graham, Aaron MacNeil, and Shaun Wilson, come at a time when concerns are mounting among some reef specialists that a persistent buildup of warm surface waters in the western tropical Pacific could spark a significant bleaching event approaching the scale not seen since the late 1990s the likes of which no one had seen before.
With the world’s oceans on the verge of what may be a year of significant coral bleaching, researchers have devised a simple way of predicting which reefs stand the best chance of recovery from a climate-triggered bleaching event.
Reefs worldwide host some 25 percent of all marine species and serve as protective nurseries for newborn fish and other forms of marine life. They also serve as a first line of defense from storm surge for coastal communities and through fishing provide the main source of protein in the diets of more than 500 million people.
