You can find more posts on climate change science, policy, and news at Climate 411.
Coral reefs aren’t just pretty places for scuba divers (although they do bring in billions of tourist dollars). These rich ecosystems also provide habitat for about a million species, including many important commercial fish. Since a billion or more people depend on fish as their main source of protein, human wellbeing is closely tied to coral health.
That’s why 2008 has been designated the International Year of the Reef (IYOR 2008), and why marine biologists, reef managers, fishermen and divers are gathering in Fort Lauderdale this week for the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium.
On the symposium’s opening day, NOAA scientists released a report on the state of coral reef ecosystems in the U.S. The entire document is a dense 569 pages, but the summary is straightforward: Coral reefs are in trouble, and climate change is an increasing threat.
What Is Happening?
The NOAA report focuses on reefs under U.S. jurisdiction. The results are grim:
• Branching corals that once formed "vast stands" across the Atlantic and Caribbean have declined as much as 90 percent at some sites
• Populations of reef fish are "largely depleted" in the Atlantic and in "poor condition" in the Pacific
• The overall condition of reefs has declined over the past 25 years, and threats are increasing
Numerous Threats
Scientists and managers identified various local threats to individual reefs. However, climate change emerged as a widespread concern. In fact, more than two-thirds of U.S. reef jurisdictions reported that threats from climate change had increased over the past 10-25 years. The report’s authors also highlighted their growing worry about ocean acidification, which could "prevent future reef growth altogether".
What We Can Do
To minimize the effects of global warming and ocean acidification on coral reefs, we must decrease our emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. However, to protect the world’s remaining coral reefs, we need to do more. That’s because corals face many other threats, including disease, coastal development, tourism and recreation, fishing, and invasive species.
The good news in all this is that corals are sensitive but also resilient—if conditions are right. If we can reduce some of the other direct stresses from human activities on coral reefs, we may enable reefs to cope better with threats like climate change.
More information from NOAA
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Press release describing the report
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Coral Reef Conservation Program
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Coral Reef Watch (satellite monitoring of coral bleaching)
- All about
coral bleaching
More information about ocean acidification
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Report from the Royal Society
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Summary of recent article in
Science magazine (the
actual article is $ubscription only)
You can find more posts on climate change science, policy, and news at Climate 411.