Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Sea-level rise could overwhelm coral reefs

An assessment of the capacity of coral reefs to grow fast enough to keep up with projected rises in sea level finds that most reefs will fall behind if nothing is done to restore them.
  1. Ilsa B. Kuffner

    1. Ilsa B. Kuffner is at the US Geological Survey, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg, Florida 33701, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Coral reefs are famous for housing biodiversity and attracting tourists, and the economic benefits that reefs provide for tropical, coastal communities around the globe measure in the billions of dollars1. One of the main services provided by reefs is that they act as natural breakwaters (Fig. 1), protecting shorelines and human-built infrastructure from storms. In a paper in Nature, Perry et al.2 report a detailed analysis of the ability of coral reefs in two ocean basins to keep growing upwards in the face of the ecological degradation they have already experienced, and taking into account future sea-level rise. The findings show that, as living coral populations wane, their capacity to build reefs might be diminished to the point at which the reef community fails to keep up with the rising ocean surface.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 558, 378-379 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-04879-7

References

  1. Costanza, R. et al. Nature 387, 253–260 (1997).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Perry, C. T. et al. Nature 558, 396–400 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Hughes, T. P. et al. Nature 546, 82–90 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Perry, C. T. et al. Coral Reefs 31, 853–868 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Church, J. A. et al. in Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (eds Stocker, T. F. et al.) Ch. 13 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2013).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Hubbard, D. K., Miller, A. I. & Scaturo, D. J. Sedimentol. Petrol. 60, 335–360 (1990).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Tribollet, A., Godinot, C., Atkinson, A. & Langdon, C. Global Biogeochem. Cycles 23, GB3008 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Silbiger, N. J. & Donahue, M. J. Biogeosciences 12, 567–578 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Webster, P. J., Holland, G. J., Curry, J. A. & Change, H.-R. Science 309, 1844–1846 (2005).

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Morris, R. L., Konlechner, T. M., Ghisalberti, M. & Swearer, S. E. Glob. Change Biol. 24, 1827–1842 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

  • Postdoctoral fellow at USC (Dr. Jian-Fu Chen lab), Los Angeles

    Two post-doc positions for studying neuroscience and craniofacial biology, crosstalk, and disease using mouse and iPSC models.

    Los Angeles, California

    USC - Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology

  • Associate Editor, Physics of Living Systems

    The Associate Editor will decide on publishing the most exciting and consequential results in the physics of living systems.

    United States (US) - Remote

    American Physical Society

  • Senior Project Manager

    The Senior Project Manager will play a key role in enabling Springer Nature’s OA transformation, and optimising and expanding our OA business.

    London – Hybrid Working Model

    Springer Nature Ltd

  • Senior Commercial Manager (Open Access)

    This position offers a unique opportunity to influence the future of open access publishing.

    London – Hybrid Working Model

    Springer Nature Ltd

  • Postdoctoral Fellow in Immunology at Northwestern University

    Our T cell biology lab is looking for fellows interested in improving immunotherapies for cancer and autoimmune disease through immune engineering.

    Chicago, Illinois

    Choi Laboratory at Northwestern

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links