According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), almost all of the world’s shallow-water coral reefs will face the risk of extinction over the next 50 years due to climate change. In its first-ever assessment report dedicated to this field, the IUCN categorized 96 percent of the planet’s coral reef systems into the highest risk category of “threatened with extinction”. Corals’ extreme sensitivity to elevated temperatures and human-induced climate change warming the global ocean are accelerating bleaching and degradation processes.
Sea-news.az reports that the analysis covered 127 tropical and subtropical coral systems spanning an area of 188,362 square kilometers. Systems at risk include the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Coral Triangle in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific, the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef in the Caribbean Sea, and the coral reefs of the Red Sea. Experts warn that the loss of primary hard corals could trigger the collapse of entire marine ecosystems.
