Marine scientists are astonished at the spectacular recovery of certain coral reefs in Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park from a devastating coral bleaching event in 2006 when high sea temperatures caused massive and severe coral bleaching in the Keppel Islands. Damaged reefs were quickly smothered by a single species of seaweed -- an event that can spell the total loss of the corals. The rapid recovery is due to an exceptional combination of previously-underestimated ecological mechanisms.
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