Climate Change And Coral Reefs News

2016 was something of a mixed bag for the global climate. On the one hand, renewable energy use has never been higher — but on the other hand, 2016 brought…

In 2016, massive new ocean protected areas and transformative policies to fight illegal fishing brought hope. Meanwhile, the world’s worst coral bleaching event, record sea ice lows, and coastal flooding…

Scientists have confirmed that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has suffered its worst-ever coral bleaching event on record due to higher than normal water temperatures in 2015 and 2016. In the…

We are currently in the midst of the the third and quite possibly worst global coral bleaching event in history, thanks to record high sea temperatures caused by a strong…

Corals around the world are bleaching. Australia's Great Barrier Reef, for example, suffered widespread bleaching this year due to rising sea surface temperatures caused by a combination of global warming and a strong El Niño. Bleaching occurs because…

he Paris Agreement marked the biggest political milestone to combat climate change since scientists first introduced us in the late 1980s to perhaps humanity’s greatest existential crisis. Last December, 178…

The global coral reef bleaching crisis is about the get worse. The catastrophic event that began in mid-2014 is likely to continue this year, scientists from the the US National Ocean and Atmospheric…

Marine biologist Carl Safina is a noted author and research professor at Stony Brook University, where he focuses on ocean sciences and is co-chair of the Alan Alda Center for…

You’re probably familiar with the 2003 animated film Finding Nemo — it was a box office hit that grossed nearly $400 million, after all. But you may be less familiar…

New research confirms that biodiversity can help reef fish weather the impacts of global warming. Reef systems with greater numbers of fish species are not just more productive but also…

Scientists have discovered a previously unknown reef ecosystem at the mouth of the Amazon River, and they’re warning that plans to drill for oil nearby could put the reef at…

es Kaufman set me straight on the paradox that is Lighthouse Reef Atoll, a cluster of five islands some 50 miles off the coast of Belize in the emerald blue…

The current global coral bleaching event began in the Pacific Ocean in the middle of 2014. By October 2015, as the current El Niño event was just beginning to gain…

A massive coral bleaching event is underway. Triggered by global warming, and a strengthening El Niño, the bleaching event could result in mass coral reef die-offs, the U.S. National Oceanographic…

Ocean acidification is troubling for most marine creatures. But some corals may have built-in protection mechanisms that could help them cope with changing ocean chemistry, a new study published this…

Researchers argue that predictability of ecosystem could be sign of health A largely pristine coral reef in the remote Pacific on an island largely unpopulated by humans. Photo by: Brian…

Palau's Rock Islands. Courtesy of Google Earth. Scientists have discovered a small island bay in the Pacific which could serve as a peephole into the future of the ocean. Palau's…

Increasing forest protection in the right areas could increase benefits up to 10.4 percent to coral reef condition, according to a recent study of Fiji's forests and reefs in Marine…

With humans scattered throughout the globe, it is hard to imagine lands still unexplored or species undocumented. Yet, on the remote French Polynesian Gambier Islands a new coral reef species…

Surging storms and rising seas threaten millions of U.S. residents and billions of dollars in property along coastlines. The nation's strongest defense, according to a new study by scientists with…

The oceans are more acidic now than they have been for at least 300m years, due to carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels, and a mass extinction of key…

From massive hotel development through the agriculture industry, humans are destroying the second largest barrier reef in the world: the Mesoamerican Reef. Although global climate change and its effects on…

You can now visit up-close and personal some of the world's most imperiled ecosystems on Google Earth: coral reefs. The Google team is working with scientists to provide 360 degree…

With islands and atolls scattered across the ocean, the small Pacific island states are among those most exposed to the effects of global warming: increasing acidity and rising sea level,…

Three weeks after Typhoon Bopha: all the Acropora coral species are dead and covered in algae and sediment. Photo courtesy of ESI. When Typhoon Bopha, also known as Pablo, ran…

Coral surveying in a cloud of fish. Photo by: Joshua Feingold. The Galapagos Islands have been famous for a century and a half, but even Charles Darwin thought the archipelago’s…

Outbreaks of the coral eating crown of thorns starfish have been responsible for 42 percent of the decline in coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef between 1985 and 2012.…

Fan coral off the coast of Belize. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Only 8 percent of the Caribbean's reefs today retain coral, according to a new report by the International…

Calcification rates by reef-building coral communities on Australia's Great Barrier Reef have slowed by nearly half over the past 40 years, a sign that the world's coral reefs are facing…

A ship approaches the Caribbean Island of Navassa. Photo by: Eddie Gonzalez. Don't feel bad if you‘ve never heard of Navassa Island, even though it's actually part of the U.S.…