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Temperatures have risen to their highest level in 400 years since 2016 on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, which includes the world’s largest coral reef, and has seen massive coral bleaching over the past five summers. Much of the reef has turned white due to heat stress, which puts them at greater risk of dying. The reef stretches 2,400 kilometers off the coast of Queensland. Scientists from universities across Australia have been digging up samples of the reef, which they have also measured using ship and satellite data from about 100 years ago, according to Reuters. The study concluded that ocean temperatures remained stable for hundreds of years and then gradually rose since 1900 due to human influence.
From 1960 to 2024, researchers observed an increase of 0.12 degrees Celsius (0.22 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade in average temperatures from January to March each year.
The study shows that these five seasons were among the warmest in the past four centuries.
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