Coral Reef Ecosystems under Climate Change and Ocean Acidification

Author:

Ove Hoegh-Guldberg,, Elvira S. Poloczanska, William Skirving, and Sophie Dove

Publication Year:

2017

Citation:

Hoegh-Guldberg O, Poloczanska ES, Skirving W and Dove S (2017) Coral Reef Ecosystems under Climate Change and Ocean Acidification. Front. Mar. Sci. 4:158. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00158.

Description:

While local factors can have significant impact on coral reefs (e.g., pollution, overfishing, and the physical destruction of reefs), changes in ocean temperature and chemistry due to anthropogenic activities are dramatically reducing the distribution, abundance, and survival of entire coral reef ecosystems (Gattuso et al., 2014b; Hoegh-Guldberg et al., 2014). Given these risks and the importance of coral reefs to humans andmarine biodiversity, the present paper focuses on the challenges that warm and cold-water coral reef ecosystems and their human communities are facing, particularly those posed by rapidly warming and acidifying oceans.

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