"Widespread bleaching" refers to a situation where a large area of something, like coral reefs or hair, loses its natural color and turns pale or white due to various causes like stress, pollution, or environmental changes.
Full definition
And even after this year's event abates, the oceans will continue warming, meaning it may not take such a strong El Niño event in the future to trigger these kinds
of widespread bleachings.
Not only is the reef threatened by
widespread bleaching as a result of rising ocean temperatures, but the project also requires the major expansion of the Abbot Point port in Queensland.
Corals across the globe are
experiencing widespread bleaching from high ocean temperatures, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration states in its latest Coral Watch Report.
Hawaii, which last year saw
widespread bleaching for the first time since 1996, is once again under a thermal stress warning through October of this year.
NOAA scientists believe high ocean temperatures have been the primary cause of
the widespread bleaching seen in the Northern Hemisphere since last year.
It chronicles
the widespread bleaching that's occurring on coral reefs around the world — an awful phenomenon where brilliantly colored, lively corals turn snowy white within a matter of weeks, due to a 2 - degree increase in water temperature.
This severe,
widespread bleaching and mortality will undoubtedly have long - term consequences for reef ecosystems and suggests a troubled future for tropical marine ecosystems under a warming climate.
Climate threshold - The point at which external forcing of the climate system, such as the increasing atmospheric concentration of heat - trapping gases (greenhouse gas es), triggers a significant climatic or environmental event which is considered unalterable, or recoverable only on very long time - scales, such as
widespread bleaching of corals or a collapse of oceanic circulation systems.
The Great Barrier Reef, while still recovering from the massive coral bleaching that ravaged 400 miles of its northern regions in 2016, is still facing an «elevated and imminent risk» of
another widespread bleaching this year.