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Coral reef ecosystems offer a variety of essential ecosystem services including shoreline protection, nitrogen fixation, and waste assimilation, and tourism opportunities. The continued decline of oxygen in oceans on coral reefs is concerning because it takes many years (decades) to repair and regrow corals. [82]
A major concern for marine biologists is the collapse of coral reef ecosystems. [40]). An effect of global climate change is the rising sea levels which can lead to reef drowning or coral bleaching. [40] Human activity, such as fishing, mining, deforestation, etc., serves as a threat for coral reefs by affecting the niche of the coral reefs.
Significant habitat loss is occurring particularly in seagrass meadows, mangrove forests and coral reefs, all of which are in global decline due to human disturbances. Coral reefs are among the more productive and diverse ecosystems on the planet, but one-fifth of them have been lost in recent years due to anthropogenic disturbances. [14] [15 ...
Every year, reefs provide about $2.7 trillion in goods and services, from tourism to coastal protection, according to a 2020 estimate by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.
In a 2022 report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, experts determined that just 1.2 C of warming would be enough to severely impact coral reefs, "with most available evidence ...
Bleached coral with normal coral in the background. Around 500 million people around the world depend on coral reefs for food, income, tourism and coastal protection. [127] Since the 1980s, this is being threatened by the increase in sea surface temperatures which is triggering mass bleaching of coral, especially in sub-tropical regions. [128]
Warm-water coral reefs are very sensitive to global warming and ocean acidification. Coral reefs provide a habitat for thousands of species. They provide ecosystem services such as coastal protection and food. But 70–90% of today's warm-water coral reefs will disappear even if warming is kept to 1.5 °C (2.7 °F).
Deeper waters are cooler, and may give corals a fighting chance for survival.