A 438-Year-Old Coral Reef In Good Condition Was Discovered In The Great Barrier Reef

Science News

Several coral reefs have already been destroyed by fisherman, boats, and tourism in general. The people have banded together to save whatever is left. They say that we need to do something about it now before it’s too late.

For instance, Australia’s great barrier reef is one of the most famous in the world. Several stories have shown how much of it has died in the last few years. Activists have now come together to see if they can bring this back to its former glory.

Just recently, the widest, and maybe even the oldest single coral in the Great Barrier Reef has been discovered. What divers also noticed is that it’s in excellent condition. The reef is large, healthy, and thriving.  These are the findings of a new paper that was published in Nature. The researchers reported how they discovered the Muga dhambi, or “big coral.” The name has its root in the language of the Manbarra people, the traditional custodians of the Palm Islands. This was where the research team came upon the coral.

The coral was discovered near Goolboodi (Orpheus Island) in March 2021. The, Muga dhambi was spherical in shape and measured 5.3 meters tall (17 feet) and 10.4 meters wide (34 feet). It’s huge enough for them to declare it as the widest and the sixth-tallest coral in the 2,900 reefs that have made up the barrier system.


Kaillash Cook, a member of the workshop team and co-author of the new paper, spoke to World at Large in an email correspondence and said, “We were running a citizen science workshop… and were interested in exploring the North Coast of Goolbodhi which is a very remote area often restricted by weather.”

Cook further said, “It was here Dr. Adam Smith found this breathtaking coral and instantly assigned people to take measurements, surveys, and coordinates for the coral.”

Muga dhambi belongs to the genus Porites and is from one of 16 common coral species that is fundamental to some of the largest and most important building blocks of nearshore corals. Adam Smith and the rest of the team behind the research have reported on the matter. And after the team consulted with the tribal elders in the area, they determined that the coral was completely unknown to the people. They found this out when they were asked to give it a name since it resided in their sea-country.

Other enormous Porites have also been seen in the American Samoa, in the reef around the Green Island off the coast of Taiwan, and Sesoko Island, Okinawa.

 

438 Years on Earth

The Straits Times

 

Based on yearly growth models that were available, Muga dhambi was estimated at between 421 and 438 years old. This is impressive when you think about something that’s been living amidst an ecosystem that’s said to be a canary in a coal mine for climate change.

“For shallow water corals, 438 year-old corals are very hard to come by,” Cook explained. “Australian Institute of Marine Sciences has investigated 328 colonies of massive Porites corals on the Great Barrier Reef and the oldest they have found is 436 years old.”

“While the age is currently an estimate based on measurements of other corals we can safely say that Muga dhambi is one of the oldest structures on the Great Barrier Reef,” Cook further said.


“After a torrid few years, the 2020-2021 long-term monitoring program of the Great Barrier Reef has found that while COVID ran rampant above, the reef’s own pandemic, coral bleaching, was hardly noticeable, and hard coral cover increased across all three regions of the reef over the last year.”

A review has been made and this focused on the environmental events that have occurred in the past 450 years. It was seen how Muga dhambi may have survived as many as 80 major cyclones and centuries of exposure to invasive species, a total 100 coral bleaching events, low tides and human activity. The numbers are large enough to destroy living species, but this has not only survived, but thrived despite the challenges.

Naija Gist Reporters

The researchers have seen how Muga dhambi is in very good health. The 70 percent of it live in the coral, the rest is covered with the green boring sponge, Cliona viridis, turf algae, and green algae.

“We found that about 30% of the colony was dead which is a completely natural and healthy occurrence as it supported the growth of turf algae, turtle weed, and sponge which all play important roles in the ecosystem,” stated Cook. “This diversity of benthos meant that lots of fish were attracted to hide in the coral structure, feed off the turf algae and turn Muga dhambi into a thriving microecosystem.”

According to the proud authors behind the study, “This field note provides important geospatial, environmental, and cultural information of a rare coral that can be monitored, appreciated, potentially restored and hopefully inspire future generations to care more for our reefs and culture.”

What are your thoughts? Please comment below and share this news!

True Activist / Report a typo

Popular on True Activist