A nineteen-year study of Maldivian reefs reports a mixed picture
Coral cover in some sheltered lagoons is recovering; exposed outer reefs are not.
A new longitudinal study of Maldivian coral cover, drawing on nineteen years of observations across twelve reef sites, finds a picture more complicated than the bleaching headlines of the last decade would suggest.
Inner lagoons, sheltered from swell and thermal pulse, show signs of recovery; exposed outer slopes are still well below their pre-2016-bleaching baseline. The authors stop short of calling the recovery durable — 'the next warm season,' they write, 'will tell us more.'
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