The Great Barrier Reef in Australia, which is the largest reef system in the world, has lost more than half of its coral population in the past three decades, according to a new study.
The research, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, assessed coral communities and their colony size along the length of the Great Barrier Reef between 1995 and 2017, and found that small, medium, and large corals have all declined in the period.
“We measured changes in colony sizes because population studies are important for understanding demography and the corals’ capacity to breed,” said Andy Dietzel, a co-author of the study from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoralCoE) in Australia.
“We found the number of small, medium and large corals on the Great Barrier Reef has declined by more than 50 per cent since the 1990s,” said Terry Hughes, another co-author of the study from CoralCoE.
According to the study, the decline occurred in both shallow and deeper water, and across virtually all species — but especially in branching and table-shaped corals.