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Sea-level rise could overwhelm coral reefs

An assessment of the capacity of coral reefs to grow fast enough to keep up with projected rises in sea level finds that most reefs will fall behind if nothing is done to restore them.
  1. Ilsa B. Kuffner

    1. Ilsa B. Kuffner is at the US Geological Survey, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg, Florida 33701, USA.

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Coral reefs are famous for housing biodiversity and attracting tourists, and the economic benefits that reefs provide for tropical, coastal communities around the globe measure in the billions of dollars1. One of the main services provided by reefs is that they act as natural breakwaters (Fig. 1), protecting shorelines and human-built infrastructure from storms. In a paper in Nature, Perry et al.2 report a detailed analysis of the ability of coral reefs in two ocean basins to keep growing upwards in the face of the ecological degradation they have already experienced, and taking into account future sea-level rise. The findings show that, as living coral populations wane, their capacity to build reefs might be diminished to the point at which the reef community fails to keep up with the rising ocean surface.

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Nature 558, 378-379 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-04879-7

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