Coral reefs can't outrun climate change
Coral reefs can’t outrun climate change
Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-06-07 04:00
It would take centuries for coral reefs to expand their range into high latitudes to escape heating oceans, but climate change is likely to kill many corals within 80 years. Researchers modelled at how groups of coral species might respond to different climate change conditions. The models show that with just 1.5 to 2°C of warming, coral reefs decline by a third by the end of this century, and it’d take hundreds of years to recover. The researchers say any reduction in greenhouse gas emissions could make a difference to the future of coral reefs and those who depend on them.
Journal/conference: Science Advances
Research: Paper
Organisation/s: Victoria University of Wellington, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, USA; University of New Hampshire, USA
Funder: N.S.V.-V. is supported by the NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, administered by UCAR’s Cooperative Programs for the Advancement of Earth System Science (CPAESS) under award #NA21OAR4310383 and #NA23OAR4310383B. L.C.M. and J.M.P. are supported by the National Science Foundation under awards #DBI-2233983 to L.C.M. and #OCE-1947954 to J.M.P. The technical support and advanced computing resources from University of Hawaii Information Technology Services—Cyberinfrastructure, funded in part by the National Science Foundation CC* awards #2201428 and #2232862, are gratefully acknowledged.