Coral reefs support fisheries, protect coastal communities, and sustain tourism worldwide. However, rising ocean temperatures and acidification from the climate crisis threaten these ecosystems. Scientists warn that even if the Paris climate agreement targets on reducing emissions are met, massive coral reef loss is inevitable and reefs could collapse within decades, impacting a billion people who depend on them globally. Yet the situation may not be quite so grim, according to a recently published study that challenges the 2023 prediction by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that coral reefs will decline by more than 99%. It suggests that reefs could instead adapt and avoid collapse, albeit with significant changes. The study authors say the findings nevertheless underscore the need to reduce local stressors and make rapid, deep cuts in carbon emissions to meet the Paris Agreement’s warming limit of 2° Celsius (3.6° Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial temperatures. “Coral reefs are not inevitably doomed,” lead author Christopher Jury, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology, told Mongabay by email. A research diver encounters Porites evermanni coral in Hawai’i. Image courtesy of Keoki Stender. The new paper acknowledges that even if the world agrees to reduce carbon emissions, temperatures will keep rising, “such that reaching or even exceeding [Paris Agreement] targets now seems inevitable.” “If we limit climate change to Paris Climate Agreement targets, or at least get relatively close, and also manage local stressors such as destructive fishing practices and coastal pollution,…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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