Climate change could wipe out almost all coral reef habitats around the world by 2100, according to research released Monday.
The bleak outlook forecasts that warming oceans and rising seas could have a devastating impact on ocean ecosystems, suggesting that current efforts to restore dying corals will likely encounter difficulties as global warming continues to decimate habitats that could once support healthy reef systems.
By 2100, it’s looking quite grim, Renee Setter, a biogeographer at the University of Hawaii at M?noa, said in a statement. She presented her findings at the annual Ocean Sciences Meeting, which is being held from Feb. 16 to 21 in San Diego.
Setter and her colleagues simulated ocean environments in which coral reefs currently exist based on projections of sea surface temperature, ocean acidification, wave energy, pollution and fishing practices. They found that by 2100, there will likely be few to zero suitable habitats remaining for corals.
Honestly, most sites are out, she said in the statement.
The few sites that could support reefs by the end of the century include small portions of Baja, California, and the Red Sea, according to the researchers.
The research shows that corals are most vulnerable to changes in their environment driven by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, trap heat in the atmosphere, increasing global surface and ocean temperatures. And when carbon dioxide mixes with ocean water, the resulting chemical reactions make the water more acidic.
This combination of warming seas and ocean acidification is already threatening coral reefs around the world, causing these ecosystems to undergo so-called bleaching events.
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