The Great Barrier Reef has begun to recover from coral bleaching
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is showing signs of recovery following the widespread coral bleaching of recent years. The improvement in the reef’s condition was partly due to the late summer monsoon, which brought cloudy weather and helped lower sea temperatures.
During the 2025–2026 season, scientists surveyed 121 reefs.
In the northern part of the reef, coral cover increased from 30% to 35.1%, and in the central part, from 28.6% to 31.6%.
In the south, no significant changes were recorded: coral cover stood at 26.4%, compared to 26.9% the previous year.
Overall:
- on 56% of the surveyed reefs, the area of coral cover remained largely unchanged;
- on 28% of the reefs, it increased;
- on 16% of them, it decreased.
Scientists believe that the relatively stable condition of the reef is partly due to monsoon activity at the end of the Australian summer.
Cloud cover reduced the heating of the sea surface and helped lower water temperatures. This, in turn, alleviated thermal stress on the corals.
“The reef once again experienced a summer with above-average sea temperatures, but monsoon activity at the end of the summer, which increased cloud cover and lowered sea temperatures, likely limited the intensity and extent of bleaching,” said AIMS expert Mike Emsley.
This year, the Great Barrier Reef did not experience mass bleaching on the scale seen in 2024 and 2025.
According to Emsley, bleaching itself does not necessarily mean the death of corals. The consequences depend on how severe and prolonged the exposure to high temperatures is.
Despite the positive trend, researchers emphasize that it is still too early to speak of a full recovery of the Great Barrier Reef.
Fast-growing Acropora corals, which were severely affected during the large-scale bleaching event in 2024, remain particularly vulnerable.
“Reefs with large populations of Acropora are currently in a very vulnerable state. What appears to be a full recovery of such reefs could be lost in just one year,” Emsley noted.
From 2016 to 2025, the Great Barrier Reef experienced six episodes of mass bleaching. Until the 1990s, such events were recorded here extremely rarely.
In addition to rising sea temperatures, the ecosystem is affected by tropical cyclones, floods, and an increase in the number of crown-of-thorns starfish, which feed on corals.
“Although the reef is showing resilience, the pressure on it is increasing, and its ability to recover is limited,” Emsley emphasized.
This is detailed in the annual report of the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), whose experts have been monitoring the condition of the Great Barrier Reef for nearly 40 years, according to Phys.org.
Nearly all of the world’s coral reefs have been hit by the most extensive and destructive bleaching event in recorded history.
Recent scientific studies have found that reefs in the northern part of the Great Barrier Reef have suffered significant losses of coral cover following a summer of extreme heat, two cyclones, and major floods.
