Halting global warming only way to save Australia's Great Barrier Reef

Image credit: Terry Hughes et al./Nature

New Delhi: Scientists said taking urgent steps to reduce global warming is the only way to preserve the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

They said attempting to stop coral bleaching through any other method will not be sufficient.

In a new research, published in the journal Nature, scientists said bleaching events should no longer be studied individually, but as threats to the reef's survival, the BBP reported.

"Climate change is the single greatest threat to the Great Barrier Reef," said co-author professor Morgan Pratchett, from Queensland's James Cook University.

"It all comes down to what the governments in Australia and around the world do in terms of mitigating further rises in temperatures."

Pratchett said he remained optimistic the reef could recover, but the "window of opportunity" to curb emissions was closing.

"It's the number one thing we need to think about now to save the reef," he told the BBC.

The reef - a vast collection of thousands of smaller coral reefs stretching from the northern tip of Queensland to the state's city of Bundaberg - was given World Heritage status in 1981.

The UN says it is the "most biodiverse" of all the World Heritage sites, and of "enormous scientific and intrinsic importance".

The bleaching - or loss of algae - in 2016 was the worst on record, harming at least 85% of the 2300-kilometer-long reef system.

(With IANS inputs)