Vibrant coral reefs teeming with marine life are diminishing throughout the Caribbean as global temperatures rise.
Vibrant coral reefs teeming with marine life are diminishing throughout the Caribbean as global temperatures rise. Coral reefs are habitats that support the seafood industry, are barriers for coastal communities from storms, flooding and sea level rise and are attractions for tourism. Their net economic value worldwide is estimated to be tens of billions of dollars. However, if atmospheric and ocean temperatures continue to rise at the current pace, coral reefs face extinction within the next 80 years, or by the end of this century.
“Entire reefs that I used to dive and snorkel on are gone. There are species you don’t see on the reef anymore. Change is happening now,” said LSU Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences Assistant Professor Dan Holstein.
He and his collaborators have developed a new, open-source computational model that is the first to predict how warming seas will destabilize coral populations throughout the Western Atlantic, including the Florida Keys, the Bahamas and the Caribbean. Using existing projections of ocean warming, the model computes how coral populations will sustain and thrive, or begin to perish, as ocean temperatures rise.
Read more at: Louisiana State University
Coral reefs could face extinction within the next 80 years, or by the end of this century, if atmospheric and ocean temperatures continue to rise at the current pace, according to new research by LSU Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences Assistant Professor Dan Holstein. (Photo Credit: Dan Holstein, LSU)
