55 HEADLINE Who’s Minding the Planet? OCEAN & COASTAL WATERS The temperature of the world’s oceans are in a warming trend; increases of just a degree or two can have a disastrous impact on plant and animal life.1 The Great Barrier Reef coral cover has declined by approximately 50% since 1985.2 The past two to three decades have seen significant bleaching events in much of the world’s coral reefs, not just in the Great Barrier Reef.2 1 SEPA (epa.gov) 2 Australian Institute of Marine Science (aims.gov.au) Observations made by the scientific community over the past 40 years are difficult to ignore: Did you know? The Devil Is In The Details The Great Barrier Reef is a colossal natural phenomenon and as a result, is a global tourist destination – and has been for decades. But as beautiful as the Reef is, and as vibrant as it may appear to the untrained eye, scientists are becoming increasingly concerned that the Reef itself is becoming permanently endangered. Cutting-edge water quality monitoring instrumentation provides real-time data and detailed information about the earth’s oceans, measuring temperature, turbidity, pH, DO (dissolved oxygen), and other parameters that are harbingers of the health of an ocean ecosystem. With this valuable information, oceanographers around the world can determine trends and assess the possible impact, with an accurate picture of the wellbeing of our oceans and the ecosystems that subsist within them. Such is the case with the Great Barrier Reef, and the numbers don’t look good. The Great Barrier Reef – it isn’t pretty Visitors to the Great Barrier Reef continue to be amazed by the sheer beauty of the Reef and the abundance of colors and the abundance and variety of marine life. But the damage caused to the Reef over the past 30-40 years has left the Reef in trouble, with coral bleaching taking its toll on much of the Reef surface area. And it isn’t pretty. When ocean waters get too warm, corals will push out the algae (which give the corals their vibrant colors) living in their tissue, causing the coral to turn completely white (ergo bleaching). Coral can survive a bleaching event, but it does put stress on the living organism, and repeated stress can eventually cause the coral to die. Increasing Temperatures and Decreasing pH Scientific instruments monitoring our waters are telling us that oceans are in a warming trend and pH is falling, and this rightfully has scientists and environmentalists concerned. An El Niño event in 2015 in Australia resulted in significant bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef in 2016, impacting the northern third of the Reef. Subsequent bleaching again in early 2017 – this time in the middle third section of the Reef and without the occurrence of an El Niño – makes it that much more alarming. Reefs and sea life have also been impacted by ocean acidification, caused by an increase in carbon dioxide absorbed by ocean waters. As a result, scientists are seeing trends of ever-so-slight decreases in ocean pH. Much like the miniscule increases in ocean water temperature and the subsequent coral bleaching events, these minimal decreases in pH can have a long-term impact on the stony skeletons that support corals as well as the shells of clams, snails, and sea urchins. Like any ecosystem, the damage or destruction of a component of the system has an offsetting impact on the rest. Continued stress on the Great Barrier Reef will impact regional fisheries, as they provide shelter and habitats for numerous marine organisms and are a key source of nitrogen and critical nutrients for marine food chains.