Marine heatwaves are damaging reef ecosystems around Australia, but while the tropical north has received the lion’s share of the attention to date, we equally need to worry about the temperate south.
The massive network of rocky reefs that lines much of southern Australia’s coastline is a shadowy cold-water underworld dominated by brown seaweeds known as kelp. The Great Southern Reef might not be as visually flamboyant as Australia’s world-famous Great Barrier Reef, with its colourful hard corals and sunlit shallow waters, but its communities of creatures are unlike anything else worldwide.
Scientists call for a name for Australia’s southern temperate reef system.