The coral conservation crisis: interacting local and global stressors reduce reef resiliency and create challenges for conservation solutions

Abstract

Coral reefs are one of the most productive and biodiverse ecosystems in the world. Humans rely on these coral reef ecosystems to provide significant ecological and economic resources; however, coral reefs are threatened by numerous local and global anthropogenic factors that cause significant environmental change. The interactions of these local and global human impacts may increase the rate of coral reef degradation. For example, there are many local influences (i.e., sedimentation and submarine groundwater discharge) that may exacerbate coral bleaching and mortality. Therefore, researchers and resource managers cannot limit their narratives and actions to mitigating a sole stressor. With the continued increase in greenhouse gas emissions, management strategies and restoration techniques need to account for the scale at which environmental change occurs. This review aims to outline the various local and global anthropogenic stressors threatening reef resiliency and address the recent disagreements surrounding present-day conservation practices. Unfortunately, there is no one solution to preserve and restore all coral reefs. Each coral reef region is challenged by numerous interactive stressors that affect its ecosystem response, recovery, and services in various ways. This review discusses, while global reef degradation occurs, local solutions should be implemented to efficiently protect the coral reef ecosystem services that are valuable to marine and terrestrial environments.

Experimental Assessment of Vulnerability to Warming in Tropical Shallow-Water Marine Organisms

“…Corals, seagrasses, and macroalgae play critical roles in the structure, functions, and processes of marine ecosystems in shallow areas. They serve as primary producers and habitat builders while providing invaluable ecosystem services, such as provisioning and climate change mitigation (Henderson et al, 2019;Good and Bahr, 2021). Since the 1980s, an alarming decline of these ecosystems has been recorded to be 27% of coral reefs (Cesar et al, 2003) and 35% of the seagrass beds (Waycott et al, 2009), including vast macroalgal coverage areas (Wernberg et al, 2019) that have been lost globally.…”

Legacy effects of anthropogenic disturbances modulate dynamics in the world's coral reefs

“…For example, ensuring that these reefs, which are often referred to as reef oases, are well managed (e.g., inside functional marine protected areas) should be a conservation priority, as local conditions can increase the capacity to resist and recover from coral bleaching in response to widespread thermal stress (Donovan et al, 2021). This is particularly relevant given the growing spatial mismatch between the scales of potential threats and planned responses (Good & Bahr, 2021). In addition, risk financing and insurance are becoming increasingly relevant (Schelske et al, 2021), as these tools are critical when absorbing financial losses in the wake of disasters and natural catastrophes.…”

“…In 90% of risk-sets, 3 years or less had elapsed between the starting and end points of a disturbance. The data set is publicly available in a DRYAD repository (González-Barrios et al, 2023).…”

Anthropogenic disturbances and ecological memory modulate dynamics in the world’s coral reefs

“…Furthermore, we expect our ndings to aid reef managers in making nancial assessments and taking decisions regarding where and how to invest scarce resources to ensure that coral reefs are restored and protected (56). This is particularly relevant given the growing spatial mismatch between the scales of potential threats and planned responses (57). Risk nancing and insurance are becoming increasingly relevant (58), as these tools are critical when absorbing nancial losses in the wake of disasters and natural catastrophes, thus signi cant opportunities for restoration may lie in risk nancing associated with risk reduction services for reefs (59).…”