A dramatic escalation of extreme climate events is challenging the capacity of environmental governance regimes to sustain and improve ecosystem outcomes. It has been argued that actors within adaptive governance regimes can help to steer environmental systems toward sustainability in times of crisis. Yet there is little empirical evidence of how acute climate crises are navigated by actors operating within adaptive governance regimes, and the factors that influence their responses. Here, we qualitatively assessed the actions key governance actors took in response to back-to-back mass coral bleaching – an extreme climate event – of the Great Barrier Reef in 2016 and 2017, and explored their perceptions of barriers and catalysts to these responses. This research was, in part, a product of collaboration and knowledge co-production with Great Barrier Reef governance actors aimed at improving responses to climate crises in the region. We found five major categories of activity that actors engaged with in the wake of recurrent mass coral bleaching: assessing the scale and extent of bleaching, sharing information, communicating bleaching to the public, building local resilience, and addressing global threats. These actions were both catalyzed and hindered by a range of factors that fall within different domains of adaptive capacity; such as assets, social organization, and agency. We discuss the implications of our findings as they relate to existing research on adaptive capacity and adaptive governance. We conclude by coalescing insights from our interviews and a participant engagement process to highlight four key ways in which the ability of governance actors, and the Great Barrier Reef governance regime more broadly, can be better prepared for, and more effectively respond to extreme climate events. Our research provides empirical insight into how crises are experienced by governance actors in a large-scale environmental system, potentially providing lessons for similar systems across the globe.

极端气候事件的急剧升级正在挑战环境治理制度维持和改善生态系统成果的能力。有人认为，适应性治理制度中的参与者可以帮助引导环境系统在危机时期实现可持续性。然而，几乎没有经验证据表明，在适应性治理体制内运作的行为者如何应对严重的气候危机，以及影响其反应的因素。在这里，我们定性地评估了主要治理参与者为应对 2016 年和 2017 年大堡礁背靠背大规模珊瑚白化（一种极端气候事件）所采取的行动，并探讨了他们对这些应对措施的障碍和催化剂的看法。这项研究在一定程度上是 与大堡礁治理参与者合作和知识共同生产的产物，旨在改善对该地区气候危机的反应。我们发现，在反复出现大规模珊瑚白化后，参与者进行了五种主要活动：评估白化的规模和程度、共享信息、向公众宣传白化、建立当地的复原力以及应对全球威胁。这些行动受到适应能力不同领域的一系列因素的催化和阻碍；如资产、社会组织和代理。我们讨论了我们的研究结果与现有的适应性能力和适应性治理研究相关的影响。最后，我们总结了我们的采访和参与者参与过程的见解，以强调治理行为者的能力和更广泛的大堡礁治理制度可以更好地准备和更有效地应对极端气候事件的四种关键方式. 我们的研究为大型环境系统中的治理行为者如何经历危机提供了实证见解，可能为全球类似系统提供经验教训。