El Niño a 'terrifying' threat to coral reefs: UN biodiversity expert

A super El Nino fuelling record ocean temperatures poses a "terrifying" threat to the world's fragile coral reefs, the chair of the UN's expert nature panel told AFP.

Marine scientist David Obura said the exceptional El Nino pattern building strength in the tropical Pacific could drive vulnerable coral species even closer toward extinction.

Corals are heat sensitive and particularly vulnerable to climate change, which is heating the world's oceans and increasing the frequency and intensity of damaging bleaching events.

But this year's El Nino layers "a terrifying level of additional risk", said Obura, a Kenyan reef expert and chair of IPBES, the UN's expert scientific panel on biodiversity.

The warming phase of a natural climate cycle, El Nino events temporarily elevate global temperatures, altering cloud and wind patterns, and raise the risk of damaging weather.

Global forecasters expect this episode to be the strongest on record, and sea surface temperatures in parts of the Pacific have already hit all-time highs months before its expected peak.

Source: Citizen Digital