Coral reefs all over the world are declining. The water is warming at a rate that will likely outpace the natural adaptive capacity of many species, across all ecosystems. Biodiversity is at risk.
Ultimately, these billions will be the offspring of corals with a thermal tolerance to match the predicted sea temperatures of the future.
We need urgent and significant reduction to global greenhouse gas emissions. And we need to rebuild the functional integrity of our ecosystems, strengthen existing management, and aid adaptation.
Ryan Donnelly, CEO
The Great Barrier Reef has had seven mass coral bleaching events since 1998, five of which have occurred since 2016.
Sediment cores and coral cores from the Great Barrier Reef have revealed that while coral bleaching has occurred naturally for centuries, the frequency and intensity of these events has dramatically increased since the late 18th century, coinciding with expanding industrialisation and the emergence of anthropogenic climate change.
As the frequency of these events increases, the period for recovery decreases. The slower growing, long-lived coral species with the specialist ecological relationships with numerous reef creatures will gradually fail to recover, leading to declining biodiversity.
Resilient Reefs is not willing to surrender to that outcome without a fight.
A Grassroots Action Group
Resilient Reefs started life as Reef Restoration Foundation in 2017 in response to the mass coral bleaching that affected the northern third of the Great Barrier Reef.
We are independent and unaligned, operated by a small team, supported by our community, and resourced through sponsorships and tax-deductible donations. Our work is supported by volunteer dive workers from our local community.
We changed our name to Resilient Reefs to better reflect what we are aiming to achieve. In warming seas, the challenge is to put coral reefs in the best position to adapt.
We assist recovery after disturbances that are occurring more frequently. And we seek to slow the decline in biological diversity that provides functionality and resilience.
Our signature Resilience & Recovery program is built around minimal intervention in the process of recovery after disturbance. It aims to hasten the process of recovery as the period in between disturbance shortens.
It uses two main principles:
- Species diversity
- Genetic diversity within species
And three main success factors:
- Corals grow about five times faster in the water column than they do on the reef
- Corals in the nurseries reach reproductive viability in about half the time
- The nurseries can be lowered to deeper, cooler water in times of thermal stress
Our program is not a competing alternative to other approaches to adaptation on the Great Barrier Reef. We need collective action and that means working together to pool our contributions for a brighter future for the Great Barrier Reef.