Because adult corals died in the 2016 / 2017 albino event, the number of newborn corals dropped sharply in. (Getty images)
According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the number of young corals born on the Great Barrier Reef, (Great Barrier Reef), plummeted in 2018, which scientists say is the early stage of a "massive natural selection campaign."
The scientists found that a series of coral albino events in 2016 and 2017 directly reduced the birth rate of newborn corals by 89 percent.
Reproductive coral species have also changed, and if this trend continues, coral reef ecosystems will be restructured over a long period of time.
The low number of new corals is due to the fact that many reproducing and mature corals were eliminated in the first two years of albinism and therefore unable to reproduce.
It will take decades for the fastest-growing coral reef to regain its reproductive population, with no albinism occurring, according to an article published today in the journal Nature.
Slower-growing coral reefs take 20 years or more to recover.
Before the 1980s, severe albino events occurred every 25 years and now occur on average every 5.9 years. Statistically, corals may have to experience another albino before recovering from the last albino event.
According to Hughes (Terry Hughes), (James Cook University) lead researcher at James Cook University, what we see today may be the early stages of change (survival of the fittest). "We have been predicting that global warming will lead to a mix of species on the Great Barrier Reef, but to our surprise, the change is taking place at such a rapid pace." (Cheng Pui-Yan)