Research published in Nature has found that fish respond to warming seas more strongly than they do to bleaching of corals.
Griffith University researchers played a key role in the study – which was led by the University of Tasmania and included researchers from James Cook University – that analysed data on fish, invertebrates and corals that were collected across the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea both before and after the 2016 ocean heat wave.
It identified important changes in reef-animal communities that may affect the resilience of coral reefs, potentially reducing the capacity of corals to rebuild after mass bleaching.
Credit: Rick Stuart-Smith
Recent mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef has devastated large areas of coral, and corals are a key habitat for many types of fish.
“We know that coral reef ecosystems are changing dramatically in response to global warming, but the focus has usually been on the fate of corals, with
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