Coral Reefs Under Climate Change and Ocean Acidification: Challenges and Opportunities for Management and Policy

Abstract

Carbon emissions in an industrialized world have created two problems for coral reefs: climate change and ocean acidification. Climate change drives ocean warming, which impacts biological and ecological reef processes, triggers large-scale coral bleaching events, and fuels tropical storms. Ocean acidification slows reef growth, alters competitive interactions, and impairs population replenishment. For managers and policymakers, ocean warming and acidification represent an almost paradoxical challenge by eroding reef resilience and simultaneously increasing the demand for reef resilience. Here, I address this problem in the context of challenges and potential solutions. Management efforts can compensate for reduced coral reef resilience in the face of global change, but to a limited extent and over a limited time frame. Critically, a realistic perspective on what sustainability measures can be achieved for coral reefs in the face of ocean warming and acidification is important to avoid setting unachievable goals for regional and local-scale management programs.

Thirty Years of Research on Crown-of-Thorns Starfish (1986–2016): Scientific Advances and Emerging Opportunities

“…Given persistent uncertainties surrounding the proximal cause(s) of outbreaks and the likelihood that multiple factors will be involved in the initiation and subsequent spread of outbreaks [57,71], it seems prudent to maintain a multipronged approach to managing outbreaks of Acanthaster spp. ( [18]; Section 2.33). Nevertheless, intensifying efforts to improve water quality, as well as redressing over-fishing on coral reefs, are important regardless of whether they ameliorate the threat posed by outbreaks of Acanthaster spp.…”

“…Secondly, outbreaks of CoTS remain a major contributor to sustained decline in coral cover at many reefs throughout the Indo-Pacific (e.g., [16,17]) and scientists and managers alike recognize the critical need to halt and reverse this decline. Preventing and/or containing CoTS outbreaks is generally considered to be one of the most feasible management actions to reduce rates of coral mortality (e.g., [7]), thereby improving the capacity of reef systems to cope with threats due to climate change and other anthropogenic disturbances [18]. Despite persistent knowledge gaps regarding the ultimate cause(s) of outbreaks, and the considerable time and cost required for effective management of established outbreaks, outbreaks of CoTS are one of the principal causes of major coral loss (along with severe tropical storms and mass coral bleaching) that are amenable to direct and immediate intervention [7].…”

Avoiding a crisis of motivation for ocean management under global environmental change

“…Coral reefs are one of the ecosystems most susceptible to climate change, largely because corals are highly sensitive to fluctuations in temperature, and because ocean acidification interferes with the process of calcification that underpins reef formation (Hoegh‐Guldberg et al., ; Kleypas & Yates, ). Science clearly shows that management interventions can improve reef ecosystems (McCook et al., ) and that significant investments in local management are needed to maintain reef functioning under climate change (Anthony, ; Kennedy et al., ). Yet, the trajectory of reef health has been one of decline in many parts of the world, even in relatively intensively managed systems like the Great Barrier Reef (De'ath, Fabricius, Sweatman, & Puotinen, ).…”

The Effects of Salinity and pH on Fertilization, Early Development, and Hatching in the Crown-of-Thorns Seastar

“…solaris (COTS) [1,2]. The vulnerability of coral reef ecosystems to global change is seen in the mass bleaching and coral mortality across the tropics caused by the 2016 El Nino-driven ocean warming [3].…”