Coral Reefs Down Globally By 50% In Last 40 Years

"CORAL cover has declined by half across the world in just four decades, according to new research that highlights a crisis in international reef management. The study reveals "disturbing evidence" of a piecemeal approach to management of reef ecosystems worldwide and calls for a proactive global response to turn the tide.

Produced by a team at the Centre for Coral Reef Biodiversity at James Cook University in Australia, the report reviews the large body of reef research published over the last 40 years and claims to pick up patterns and trends not usually detected in smaller, isolated projects.

They provide evidence that the increasing instability of coral reef ecosystems before their collapse has often gone unnoticed, even on reefs that are relatively well studied. Professor David Bellwood, a fish ecologist and director of the CCRB, said: "Although these signs were exceptionally well documented, nobody put the pieces together in time to forecast their eventual consequence.

EDIT

In essence, the ability of reefs worldwide to survive despite major threats such as global warming, over-fishing, chemical pollution, disease and sedimentation from urban run-off is at risk. Rather than just recording what life a reef supports, the report says a critical aspect of understanding resilience in reefs is to realise that some fish and corals might be more important than others."

EDIT

http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=727742004

Is a great resorce to use. We must protect it.

There is no way enough will be done to save the coral
population from ruin. What will the effect be when the
coral reefs are gone? How long will it be?
Forty years - less?

I recall reading an article about an oceanographer a couple years ago who said that (by his calculations) even if we magically halted all our greenhouse emissions tomorrow, the warming trend we've created won't stop soon enough to save the coral.

In the big picture, I think that we'll see some corals evolve to handle the increased heat. This must already have happened many times before, considering that the earth has been warmer than it is now several times over geologic history.

But so much will be lost. This guy was scared. I'll never forget what he said: "I don't mean to be alarmist, but I'm alarmed."