Key coral reefs 'could disappear'

By Lucy Williamson BBC News, Manado, Indonesia  The world’s most important coral region is in danger of being wiped out by the end of this century unless fast action is taken, says a new report. The international conservation group WWF warns that 40% of reefs in the Coral Triangle have already been lost. The area […]

4,000-year-old coral beds threatened by fishing and poaching

COLLEGE STATION, March 24, 2009 – Researchers led by a Texas A&M University professor have discovered coral beds off the coast of Hawaii that are more than 4,200 years old, making them among the oldest living creatures on Earth. The team, directed by Brendan Roark of Texas A&M’s College of Geosciences, and colleagues from the […]

Major losses for Caribbean reef fish in last 15 years

(Cell Press) By combining data from 48 studies of coral reefs from around the Caribbean, researchers have found that fish densities that have been stable for decades have given way to significant declines since 1995. The study appears online on March 19 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. "We were most surprised to discover […]

Taiwan coral reefs "turn black" with disease

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Coral reefs off the southeast coast of Taiwan have turned black with disease possibly due to sewage discharge, threatening fragile undersea ecosystems and tourism, a study released Friday said.  The discovery on a problem long suspected but seldom documented shows that coral is suffering widely in waters up to five meters (16.4 […]

Demand for reef fish causes drastic population declines

…The fierce appetite for live reef fish across Southeast Asia — and increasingly in mainland China — is devastating populations in the Coral Triangle, a protected marine region home to the world’s richest ocean diversity, according to a recent report in the scientific journal Conservation Biology. Spawning of reef fish in this area, which supports […]

Acidification, climate change killing off corals

Ocean acidification and rising temperatures are gradually killing off the biggest and most robust corals on the Great Barrier Reef since 1990, the “tipping point” year, says a new study. The study, authored by Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) scientists Glenn De’ath, Janice Lough and Katharina Fabricius, is the most comprehensive one to date […]

Great Barrier Reef in crisis

Coral growth in decline at Great Barrier Reef Warming, more acidic oceans cited; ‘pretty scary’ findings, one expert says By Miguel Llanos, msnbc.com The rate at which corals absorb calcium from seawater to calcify their hard skeletons — and thus grow — has declined dramatically in the last two decades and signs point to manmade […]

Warm summer brings high bleach risk for Barrier Reef

Predictions of a long, hot summer may please many Australians, but it is not good news for one of the country’s top tourist attractions. Satellite images show sea surface temperatures in the Coral Sea are already higher than average and the Bureau of Meteorology and the American National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have both forecast […]

Fifth of world's corals already dead, say experts

POZNAN, Poland (AFP) – Almost a fifth of the planet’s coral reefs have died and carbon emissions are largely to blame, according to an NGO study released Wednesday. The report, released by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, warned that on current trends, growing levels of greenhouse gases will destroy many of the remaining reefs […]

Deep sea coral latest victim of acidic ocean

Since the wide-spread burning of fossil fuels began, our global oceans have become nearly a third more acidic and it is killing one of the most unusual ecosystems we have – deep sea coral. An international symposium is underway right now in Wellington, bringing researchers from all around the world together to discuss the problem. […]

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