Rehabilitating coral reefs in the Anthropocene

Abstract

Coral reefs provide food and livelihoods for hundreds of millions of coastal people in over 100 countries. Recent global estimates for the total value of goods and services that they can generate indicate around US$ 105,000–350,000 per hectare per year, but local estimates of current total economic value can be one to two orders of magnitude lower. Unfortunately, coral reefs are under threat both from local human stressors (for example, sediment and nutrient run-off from agriculture, sewage discharges, dredging, destructive fishing, land ‘reclamation’, overfishing) and, increasingly, from stressors related to global climate change (not only El Niño Southern Oscillation-related marine heatwaves, which cause mass bleaching and mortality of corals, but also more frequent and powerful tropical cyclones and ocean acidification). Four successive mass-bleaching events on Australia's iconic Great Barrier Reef between 2016 and 2022 (plus another one currently underway) have focused world attention on the need for urgent action to protect coral reefs. It is clear that coral reef ecosystems will continue to decline unless anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are reduced and innovative management strategies are developed to assist adaptation.