Red Bluff Daily News

May 31, 2016

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By Kristen Gelineau The Associated Press SYDNEY Mass bleach- ing has killed more than a third of the coral in the northern and central parts of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, though corals to the south have escaped with lit- tle damage, scientists said on Monday. Researchers who con- ducted months of aerial and underwater surveys of the 2,300-kilometer (1,400- mile) reef off Australia's east coast found that around 35 percent of the coral in the northern and central sec- tions of the reef are dead or dying, said Terry Hughes, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook Uni- versity in Queensland state. And some parts of the reef had lost more than half of the coral to bleaching. The extent of the dam- age, which has occurred in just the past couple of months, has serious im- plications, Hughes said. Though bleached corals that haven't died can re- cover if the water tempera- ture drops, older corals take longer to bounce back and likely won't have a chance to recover before the next bleaching event occurs, he said. Coral that has died is gone for good, which affects other creatures that rely on it for food and shelter. "Is it surprising? Not anymore. Is it significant? Absolutely," said Mark Ea- kin, the coral reef watch co- ordinator for the U.S. Na- tional Oceanic and Atmo- spheric Administration. "We're talking about los- ing 35 percent of the pop- ulation of coral in some of these reefs — that's huge." The damage is part of a massive bleaching event that has been impacting reefs around the world for the past two years. Experts say the bleaching has been triggered by global warm- ing and El Nino, a warming of parts of the Pacific Ocean that changes weather world- wide. Hot water puts stress on coral, causing it to turn white and become vulner- able to disease. Other reefs have suffered even more from the recent bleaching; Some Pacific islands, for ex- ample, have reported coral death rates of more than 80 percent, Eakin said. This is the third and most extreme mass bleaching event in 18 years to strike the Great Barrier Reef. In each case, the areas that suffered the worst bleach- ing were the areas where the water was hottest for the longest period of time, Hughes said. This time, the southern half of the reef was spared largely due to a lucky break that arrived in the form of a tropical cyclone. The rem- nants of the storm which had lashed the South Pacific brought cloud cover and heavy rains to the region, cooling the ocean enough to stop bleaching that had just begun in the south. About 95 percent of the coral in the southern portion of the reef has survived. Storms have previously proven very helpful for heat-stressed reefs, Eakin said. In 2005, for instance, the quick succession of Hur- ricane Katrina and Hurri- cane Rita cooled the waters below as they passed over Florida, sparing the Florida Keys from a serious coral bleaching event affecting the Caribbean. Experimental ap- proaches to the bleaching dilemma have included at- tempts to lower water tem- peratures by using shades to cover corals, Eakin said. But such efforts require massive amounts of prepa- ration and can only be done in small areas, Eakin said. Other solutions may lie in finding ways to minimize additional stressors to the already fragile reef. "Anything you can do to reduce the level of injury and stress coming from other sources, the better the chance that the corals are going to survive," Ea- kin said. "Those reefs that have recovered after events like this are the ones that are the most protected, least visited and least dis- turbed." Last year, the United Nations' heritage body ex- pressed concern about the state of the Great Barrier Reef and urged Australia to boost its conservation efforts. Following the release of the bleaching report on Monday, Australian pol- iticians — who are in the midst of an election cam- paign — jumped on the is- sue, with the opposition La- bor Party pledging to cre- ate a $500 million fund for better management and research of the reef. En- vironment Minister Greg Hunt, meanwhile, an- nounced that if his party is re-elected, the government would invest $6 million to helping combat the crown- of-thorns starfish, which feast on coral. SURVEYS BleachingkillsthirdofcoralinGreatBarrierReef'snorth PHOTOSBYDAVIDBELLWOOD— ARC CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR CORAL REEF STUDIES A February, 2016photo released Monday by ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies shows mature stag-horn coral bleached at Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef off the eastern coast of northern Australia. An April, 2016photo released Monday by ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, shows mature stag-horn coral dead and overgrown by algae at Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef off the eastern coast of northern Australia. By Karl Ritter The Associated Press STOCKHOLM Famous for its efforts to put women on an equal footing with men, Sweden is experiencing a gender balance shift that has caught the country by surprise: For the first time since record-keeping began in 1749, it now has more men than women. Swedes don't quite know what to make of this sud- den male surplus, which is highly unusual in the West, where women historically have been in the majority in almost every country. But it may be a sign of things to come in Europe as changes in life expectancy and mi- gration transform demo- graphics. "This is a novel phenome- non for Europe," said Fran- cesco Billari, a University of Oxford demographer who is president of the European Association for Population Studies. "We as research- ers have not been on top of this." The tipping point in Swe- den happened in March last year, when population sta- tistics showed 277 more men than women. The gap has since grown to beyond 12,000. While that's still small in a population of al- most 10 million, it's "not un- reasonable" to suspect that Sweden will have a big male surplus in the future, said Tomas Johansson, a popu- lation expert at the national statistics agency, SCB. Despite a natural birth rate of about 105 boys born for every 100 girls, Euro- pean women have histor- ically outnumbered men because they live longer. An Associated Press anal- ysis of national and Euro- pean Union population sta- tistics suggests women will remain in the majority in most European countries for decades to come. But the number of men per 100 women, known as the sex ratio, is increasing, slowly in Europe as a whole and quickly in some northern and central European coun- tries. Norway swung to a male surplus in 2011, four years before Sweden, while Den- mark and Switzerland are nearing a sex ratio of 100. Germany, which had an un- natural deficit of men after two world wars, has seen its sex ratio jump from 87 in 1960 to 96 last year. Mean- while, Britain's sex ratio rose from 93 to 97 in the same period. British sta- tistics officials project that men will be in the majority by 2050. Researchers don't have a clear idea of what happens to a society when the popu- lation becomes more mas- culine. SURPLUS It's raining men! Sweden sees historic gender balance shi InPrintEveryTuesday-Thursday-Saturday Online:Publishes24/7 www.redbluffdailynews.com Threeadditionalonline locations at no extra cost! 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