Great Barrier Reef survival relies on halting warming, study warns

LONDON. KAZINFORM Australia's Great Barrier Reef can be saved only if urgent steps are taken to reduce global warming, new research has warned, BBC  reported.

Attempting to stop coral bleaching through any other method will not be sufficient, according to scientists.

The research, published in the journal Nature, said bleaching events should no longer be studied individually, but as threats to the reef's survival.

The bleaching - or loss of algae - in 2016 was the worst on record.

"Climate change is the single greatest threat to the Great Barrier Reef," said co-author Prof Morgan Pratchett, from Queensland's James Cook University.

"It all comes down to what the governments in Australia and around the world do in terms of mitigating further rises in temperatures."

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