Hold onto your snorkels! 🐠 A groundbreaking study led by the University of Queensland (UQ) has used high-res satellite tech to show that shallow coral reefs cover 348,361 square kilometers worldwide—that’s 25% more than previous estimates! 📈 Published in Cell Reports Sustainability, the findings could be a huge win for marine conservation efforts.
The team analyzed over 1.5 million samples and a whopping 100 trillion pixels from satellites like Sentinel-2 and Planet Dove CubeSat. 🛰️ The upgraded maps reveal fine-scale details, including 80,213 square kilometers of coral habitat, giving scientists a clearer blueprint to protect these biodiversity hotspots. 💙
\"This is like upgrading from flip-phone photos to 4K resolution for coral reefs,\" joked one researcher. 🤿 The data could help track reef health in real-time, offering hope amid climate change threats. 🌡️
