Anthropogenic climate change is fuelling repeated marine heatwaves and has triggered the fourth global mass coral bleaching event in 2023–2025, causing widespread coral mortality worldwide. Here, we document the impacts of this event on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), where heat accumulation peaked in February–March 2024 and caused mass coral bleaching for the seventh time since 1998. We use data from the Australian Institute of...

Aim Identifying the maximum coral cover that a coral community can sustain (i.e., its ‘upper limit’) is important for predicting community dynamics and improving management strategies. Here, we quantify the relationship between estimated upper limits and key environmental factors on coral reefs: hard substrate availability, temperature and water clarity. Location Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Australia (over 1400 km). Time Period...

Anthropogenic pressure is increasing the variety and frequency of environmental disturbance events, limiting recovery and leading to long‐term declines in wild plant and animal populations. Coral reefs and associated fish assemblages are inherently dynamic due to their susceptibility to a host of disturbances, but regional‐scale nuances in the drivers of long‐term change frequently remain poorly resolved. Here, we examine the...

Networks of no-take marine protected areas (MPAs), where all extractive activities are prohibited, are the most effective tool to directly protect marine ecosystems from destructive and unsustainable human activities. No-take MPAs and MPA networks have been globally implemented in coastal seas, and their success has been significantly enhanced where science-based biophysical guidelines have informed their design. Increasingly,...

Over the past decade, vertebrate populations globally have experienced significant declines in distribution and abundance. Understanding the reasons behind these population declines is the first step in implementing appropriate management responses to improve conservation outcomes. Uncovering drivers of extirpation events after the fact, however, requires a careful forensic approach to prevent similar declines elsewhere. The o...

Near‐shore marine environments are increasingly subjected to reduced water quality, and their ability to withstand it is critical to their persistence. The potential role marine reserves may play in mitigating the effects of reduced water quality has received little attention. We investigated the spatial and temporal variability in live coral and macro‐algal cover and water quality during moderate and major flooding events of...