A general overview of coral reefs threats under accelerated anthropogenic climate change
The oceans are an amazing part of the planet Earth. They support a wealth of marine wildlife, but unfortunately, they are being impacted by anthropogenic climate change. The increasing greenhouse gas emissions are challenging marine ecosystems that are already stressed by overfishing, land-use change, environmental pollution, and human development.
Climate alterations are affecting a wide variety of marine species such as fish, polar bears, sea lions, seabirds, penguins, plankton, and corals. One of the ecosystems most affected by accelerated anthropogenic climate disturbances are coral reefs. For thousands of years, coral reefs all over the world have offered support to humans, and today they continue to be essential for our survival. Despite constituting only 0.1% of the ocean surface, coral reef structures are unique ecoregions that provide diverse benefits to the earth’s population. These ecosystems represent an important source of income from fishing and tourism and the biodiversity afforded by coral reefs are very valuable for science and education. Over the last few decades, climate change has decimated coral reef populations worldwide due to thermal stress from global warming: the main threat to coral reefs’ survival.
Thermal stress induces a phenomenon known as coral bleaching. During coral bleaching, reef-forming organisms become very susceptible to diseases and death. Around the world, coral reefs have experienced massive mortality events due to a rise in sea temperatures. Despite the fact that coral reefs provide multiple invaluable benefits, little attention has been devoted to ameliorating the damage induced by human activities. Currently, the climatic disturbances are putting coral reefs and marine species in general at severe risk. For this reason, non-destructive and sustainable practices are needed to protect these essential ecosystems. The future outlook of coral reefs can be very cruel if we don’t take action now and contribute to any of the available solutions.
If climate change is not arrested, it will lead to endangered species extinction. Degradation of marine ecosystems will also weaken our ability to provide food, carbon storage, and oxygen generation from critical ecosystem servers.
The climate crisis bearing down on marine species is worrying. It is important that everyone takes productive actions to raise awareness and address this crisis. We should be mindful of how our daily actions contribute to climate change and the particular impact of global warming on coral reef populations.
This was enlightening. Thank you!
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