Great Barrier Reef on sixth life in 30,000 years: study

Yahoo – AFP, May 28, 2018

An aerial view of the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of the Whitsunday Islands,
along the central coast of Queensland. Researchers say the reef has returned
from near-extinction five times in the past 30,000 years (AFP Photo/SARAH
LAI, SARAH LAI)

Paris (AFP) - Australia's Great Barrier Reef, under severe stress in a warmer, more acidic ocean, has returned from near-extinction five times in the past 30,000 years, researchers said Monday.

And while this suggests the reef may be more resilient than once thought, it has likely never faced an onslaught quite as severe as today, they added.

"I have grave concerns about the ability of the reef in its current form to survive the pace of change caused by the many current stresses and those projected into the near future," said Jody Webster of the University of Sydney, who co-authored a paper in the journal Nature Geoscience.

In the past, the reef shifted along the sea floor to deal with changes in its environment -- either seaward or landward depending on whether the level of the ocean was rising or falling, the research team found.

Based on fossil data from cores drilled into the ocean floor at 16 sites, they determined the Great Barrier Reef, or GBR for short, was able to migrate between 20 centimetres (7.9 inches) and 1.5 metres per year.

This rate may not be enough to withstand the current barrage of environmental challenges.

The reef "probably has not faced changes in SST (sea surface temperature) and acidification at such a rate," Webster told AFP. Rates of change "are likely much faster now -- and in future projections."

The World Heritage-listed site, which attracts millions of tourists, is reeling from successive bouts of coral bleaching due to warming sea temperatures linked to climate change.

Webster and an international team wanted to view the reef's current plight within a longer-term context.

Over 10 years, they studied how it had responded to changes caused by continental ice sheets expanding and waning over 30 millennia.

Fish nurseries

Their research covers a period from before the "Last Glacial Maximum" or LGM -- the peak freeze about 21,000 years ago during the last Ice Age.

The average sea level at the time was some 120 metres (394 feet) lower than today.

As sea levels dropped leading up to the LGM, there were two massive "death events" -- about 30,000 and 22,000 years ago, the team found.

These were caused by the reef being exposed to air. What remained of it inched seaward to rebound later.

As ice sheets melted after the LGM, two die-offs -- 17,000 and 13,000 years ago -- were due to sea level rise, the team found. In these cases, the reef moved itself landward.

The fifth death event took place about 10,000 years ago, apparently due to a massive sediment dump amidst a higher sea level.

Webster said the GBR "will probably die again in the next few thousand years anyway if it follows its past geological pattern" as Earth is believed to be due for another ice age.

"But whether human-induced climate change will hasten that death remains to be seen."

In April, a study said nearly a third of the reef's coral was killed in a "catastrophic die-off" during a violent heatwave in 2016.

Changes in sea temperature and acidity can cause corals to "bleach" -- ejecting the algae that live in their tissue and provide them with food.

Bleached corals are more susceptible to disease, and without enough time to recover, may disappear for good.

Coral reefs are home to about a quarter of ocean life, and act as nurseries for many species of fish.

Related Article:

“2011 and Beyond” - What you are seeing, and why - Jan 16, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Text version)

"....The Prediction: The Renewal of the Life Cycle

When you change the temperature strata of the oceans of the earth, things start to change, for the life cycle of the food in the ocean depends upon that which is the smallest. The plankton of the planet survive in certain temperatures, and that's changing. Throw away what you think you know about how it's all supposed to work, and instead think "renewal" or "how did it begin." This will serve you to understand what is happening now. This cycle is built to replenish the ocean with life and not always by sustaining the kind that was there.

Let us just talk about the ocean for a moment. We won't even get to what's happening in the air and what mammals might experience. Let's just speak of the ocean. Have you heard about the salmon? What has your science warned you against? You're overfishing! The sea is dying. The coral is dying. The reefs are going away. You're not seeing the food chain that used to be there. You've overfished everything. Fishing quotas have been set up to help this. Oh, all those little people in the red room - they don't know about the purple. Red people only know about the red paradigm.

Did you hear about the salmon recently? There's too many of them! In the very place where quotas are in place so you won't overfish, they're jumping in the boats! Against all odds and any projections from environmentalists or biologists, they're overrunning the oceans in Alaska - way too many fish.

What does that tell you? Is it possible that Gaia takes care of itself? That's what it tells you! Perhaps this alignment is going to keep humanity fed. Did anybody think of this? What if Gaia is in alliance with you? What if the increase in consciousness that raised your DNA vibration has alerted Gaia to change the weather cycle and get ready to feed humanity? Are you looking at the ocean where the oil spill occurred? It's recovering in a way that was not predicted. What's happening?

The life cycle itself is being altered by the temperature change of the ocean and much of what you have believed is the paradigm of life in the sea is slowly changing. A new system of life is appearing, as it has before, and is upon you in your lifetime. It will compliment what you know and expose you to a new concept: Gaia regularly refreshes the life cycle on Earth.

Within this process, there will be the extinction of certain plants and animals, birds and fish. My advice to you, especially to those environmentalists, is to understand the cycle of life so that you may relax with what nature has always done. It puts life on the planet to serve the planet for a time. When certain life no longer serves the planet in the ways it used to, it takes it away. The extinction of life, especially through weather change, is normal for Gaia. It is honored, appropriate and normal, even if you don't think so. Don't try to save all the disappearing animals, fish and birds! Some are supposed to go away. And, dear ones, don't assign all this activity to something you did to cause it!

The red people are stressing. The purple is here, and they are trying to figure out what they did wrong. They don't know they are in the Rainbow Room. They think they are in the RED ROOM. This is what the Rainbow Room does; it changes colors. So as the room does what it has always done, the red people are sitting there in fear trying to figure out what it is that they did that possibly could have caused the purple to appear.

The Rainbow Room is beautiful. The color purple is significant. Going from red to purple has metaphysical significance within this parable, but I'll let you figure it out. For those who are into colors, there's a reason why I gave those two. The earth is becoming more sacred than it's ever been before. Gaia is with you in this. It's cooperating in ways you never thought it could, in the way biologists said it would not. You think you're killing it? Instead, it's giving birth to an altered ecological system. ...."