One-third of Great Barrier Reef corals killed in marine heatwave

High water temperatures off the east Australian coast in 2016 bleached and "cooked" large sections of the Great Barrier Reef, according to a new scientific study released Thursday.The study, published in the journal Nature, showed 29 percent of the almost 4,000 reefs that make up the Great Barrier Reef lost at least two-thirds of their corals over a nine-month period, affecting their ability to support diverse ecosystems."When corals bleach from a heatwave, they can either survive and regain their color slowly as the temperature drops, or they can die," Terry Hughes, lead study author and d…READ FULL ARTICLE