Check your subscription status, update your details and more. Falling sea levels due to El Niño will hit mangroves and corals As sea level rise in the eastern Pacific, they are falling around Australia and the Coral Triangle, leaving some mangroves and corals high and dry Higher sea levels in the eastern Pacific due to the monster El Niño are expected to cause record coastal flooding and erosion in the coming months. But on the other side of the Pacific, falling sea levels around Australia and the Coral Triangle – an area to the north of the continent – pose another threat that is only just starting to be recognised: mass die-offs of mangrove forests, with corals and seagrass meadows also impacted.
During the super El Niños in 1982/83 and 2015/16, there were mass diebacks of mangrove forests in northern Australia, says Norman Duke at James Cook University in Australia. In the 2015 event, around 76 square kilometres of mangroves on a 2000-kilometre-long stretch of shoreline in the Gulf of Carpentaria died. Receive a weekly dose of discovery in your inbox.
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