Management Concern: High    

Adequacy of Information: Good

Summary extracts from Outlook Report 2009

• Average water temperature across the Great Barrier Reef is increasing.
• Analyses of cores from corals dating back to the mid seventeenth century suggest that current temperatures are warmer now than at any other time in that period.  Gradual overall increases in sea temperatures are an effect of climate change.

What do we know?

Relevant pages from Outlook Online include:

• Cold temperature coral bleaching [0.15MB]
  
• Sea surface temperature
  
• Differential susceptibilities of corals to bleaching
  
• Coral reef bleaching: ecological perspectives (pre-1993)
  
• Climate change, coral bleaching and the future of the world's coral reefs
  
• 1997-98: Unprecedented thermal stress to coral reefs?
  
• Bleaching events in 1998 and 2002
  
• Doom and boom on a resilient reef: climate change, algal overgrowth and coral recovery
  
• Coral survival following bleaching
  
• e-ATLAS: Coral Bleaching 
  
• e-ATLAS: Sea Surface Temperature (HadISST 1.1) 
  

Existing policies and management actions

• Australian Government policy on climate change 
• Queensland Government climate change policies and strategies 
• Climate Change Action Plan 2007-2012
• ReefTemp
• BleachWatch
  

Future management requirements

• Future management requirements in this area are being guided by ongoing assessment of emerging research outcomes and issues identified by the Great Barrier Reef Outlook Report 2009.

Defined research questions

• There are currently no defined research questions for this topic. Research questions will be developed, giving priority to interactions/issues that are of most concern to management.

Related information

• Current Research and Monitoring