Corals on the Edge

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, announced at the Climate COP in Baku on 13 November 2024, shows that 44 percent of reef building coral species globally are threatened with extinction. This was based on an assessment of the conservation status of 892 warm-water reef-building coral species. Climate change is the main threat, along with pollution, agricultural runoff, disease and unsustainable fishing. Severe coral bleaching events have been reported around the world.

For example, Staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) and Elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) are two Critically Endangered species in the Caribbean that have experienced significant declines due to increased warming, water pollution, hurricanes and the severe impacts of coral diseases. When I was working on reefs in the Caribbean in the 1970s, they were the most common and important reef-building corals.

To save corals from extinction, we need to cut greenhouse gas emissions, accompanied by actions to address other threats, and to strengthen species’ resilience. Selecting and protecting the most heat-adapted corals, as IEF member Austin Bowden-Kerby is doing in Fiji, may help, as will research to see if corals can adapt.