AIMS Time Series Photography of Great Barrier Reef Corals

Topics index

Lizard Island
(Site 1)

Lizard Island through time (site 1): 1981-2002


1981 - This is the first year the site was photographed, coral cover ~40%	1982 - Crown-of-thorns starfish and bleaching kill most of the hard coral, leaving <10% cover

1995 - Thirteen years later hard coral reaches its highest level at the site ~43%. Most of this cover is made up of numerous medium sized colonies, rather than a few large ones as seen in 1981.	2002 - The latest images of the site show cover has decreased to <20% due to another COTS outbreak in the late 1990s.

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