University of Sydney marine biologists have identified a devastating combination of coral bleaching and a rare necrotic wasting disease that wiped out large, long-lived corals on the Great Barrier Reef during the record 2024 marine heat wave. Their study, published on Dec. 10 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, also sends an urgent warning at the global level: “The current trajectory of climate change is progressing too quickly for corals to adjust,” the authors wrote. “Coral reefs are in danger, with recurrent anomalous heat waves and mass coral bleaching being the greatest threat to their survival.”

Great Barrier Reef study: Global impact of rare coral-killing disease. (2025, December 13). The Manila Times, p. C1.