Pollution, overfishing, coastal development and climate change are putting the world’s coral reefs under increasing pressure. With millions of people relying on them, how can science help make our reefs sustainable?

A healthy coral reef is a thing of beauty and a wonder to behold. Coral reefs make a great holiday destination but for many of the world’s people they are so much more. Approximately 500 million people depend on coral reefs for food, coastal protection, building materials and income from tourism. But this precious resource is under growing pressure and in serious decline.

19 per cent of the world’s coral reefs have effectively been lost and a further 15 per cent are seriously threatened with loss within the next 10 to 20 years. In some regions the losses are significantly higher.

And what is threatening our coral reefs? Basically it’s us and our activities. Overfishing, pollution, disease and habitat destruction are some of the direct threats, but overarching and interacting with these are a suite of more serious problems connected with climate change – warming oceans, ocean acidification and rising sea levels.

However, it’s not all bad news, especially in the short term. As scientists investigate how coral reefs bounce back after major disturbances (such as storms) they’re discovering that healthy coral reefs can have enormous resilience. While healthy, biodiverse reefs can be resilient to disturbances such as warmer water, multiple threats to reefs decrease their ability to bounce back. Through effective management of reefs and their catchment areas and by establishing marine protected areas we can reduce the threats to the reef and help make them sustainable. However, in the longer term, the future of the Great Barrier Reef and other reefs of the world will depend on international initiatives to curb carbon dioxide emissions.

The future of the world’s coral reefs is looking grim on many fronts, and climate change will certainly redraw the coral distribution maps of the world. As this century unfolds, unless we curb our greenhouse gas emissions and promote resilience in our reefs, corals are going to deteriorate to the point where we could lose them altogether

More information on this topic is available on the Australian Academy of Science’s Nova: Science in the news at Science for sustainable reefs. A glossary, student activities and useful resources are also available.

This topic is sponsored by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies

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