- Coral islands face extinction
- Climate change threatens borders
- Urgent coastal management needed
A study has revealed that over a dozen coral islands, which delineate the maritime boundaries of Australia, are threatened with extinction.
Their existence is threatened by a variety of pressures, including the continuous rise in sea levels.
According to the study, their disappearance could have repercussions for the nation’s maritime borders.
Australia’s jurisdiction has expanded to encompass more than one million square kilometers of territory through the support and demarcation of the islands.
The research evaluated 56 islands according to a variety of criteria, including their susceptibility to heatwaves and flooding.
Three islands situated on the North West Shelf of Western Australia were identified in the report, which was published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, as being at “extremely high risk” from climate-related hazards.
Eleven additional islands in the Coral Sea off the coast of Queensland were deemed to be at significant risk.
There was no island with zero danger.
The risk assessments were derived from the present circumstances experienced by the islands; however, the report highlights that climate change will amplify the peril posed by marine heatwaves and rising sea levels.
The study found that the threat to the islands affects local communities. It was also stated that the possibility of their disappearance has geopolitical repercussions.
Dr. Thomas Fellowes of the University of Sydney said that the islands “provide large amounts of area that Australia has rights over – fishing, transport, mineral exploration.”
The survival of the coral islands is vital to Australia’s coastal management, according to Dr. Fellowes, who co-wrote the study.
He stated that reducing the consumption of fossil fuels could aid in delaying the rate of island decay.
Low-lying land formations known as coral islands are constructed entirely of sediments deposited by coral debris.
Threatened coral reefs exist in Australian waters.
Climate change also catastrophic bleaching have killed almost half of the Great Barrier Reef’s corals.
Mass bleaching occurs when corals in distress expel the algae that provide them with their distinctive hues.
Around twenty-five percent of the marine species on Earth rely on coral reefs during some phase of their life cycle.
