Great Barrier Reef survival relies on halting warming, study warns

The Great Barrier Reef is experiencing its worst bleaching on record

Australia's Great Barrier Reef can be saved only if urgent steps are taken to reduce global warming, new research has warned.

Attempting to stop coral bleaching through any other method will not be sufficient, according to scientists.

The research, published in the journal Nature, said bleaching events should no longer be studied individually, but as threats to the reef's survival.

The bleaching - or loss of algae - in 2016 was the worst on record.

"Climate change is the single greatest threat to the Great Barrier Reef," said co-author Prof 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."

Mass coral bleaching

• Coral bleaching is caused by rising water temperatures resulting from two natural warm currents.

• It is exacerbated by man-made climate change, as the oceans are absorbing about 93% of the increase in the Earth's heat.

• Bleaching happens when corals under stress drive out the algae known as zooxanthellae that give them colour.

• If normal conditions return, the corals can recover, but it can take decades, and if the stress continues the corals can die.

Lead author Prof Terry Hughes warned bleaching events had become "the new normal".

Last week, he said an aerial survey had shown evidence of mass bleaching in consecutive summers for the first time.

The scale of the damage will be examined in the next three weeks by the National Coral Bleaching Taskforce, a collaboration of scientists and reef managers.

• Australian summer broke 205 records

• Can super coral save the Great Barrier Reef?

• Is the Great Barrier Reef coming to the end of its life?

Prof 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.

Improving fishing practices or water quality would not be enough, he said.

The reef - a vast collection of thousands of smaller coral reefs stretching from the northern tip of Queensland to the state's southern 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".