Coral reefs are home to 25 percent of all marine species ... and they're disappearing fast.
Coral reefs are a complex and vast global ecosystem, home to more than 25 percent of all marine species.
The Coral Triangle (from the Philippines to Malaysia to Papua New Guinea) is the most diverse marine region on the planet, as important to life on Earth as the Amazon rainforest and the Congo basin.
More than 1500 square kilometres of reef disappeared in the Coral Triangle between 1968 and 2003. That's one percent a year, twice the pace of rainforest decline.
Human pressures directly threaten more than half the world’s coral reefs. All reefs are increasingly at risk from global climate change.
Algae and coral live together symbiotically, creating the vivid colours of coral reefs. When rising temperatures stress reefs, the coral expels the algae, turning the reefs white. This ‘bleached coral’ is weak and prone to disease.
Coral bleaching is predicted to occur more frequently by 2030 and is likely to be an annual event by 2100.
In 1998, the hottest year ever recorded, El Nino–heated waters killed 15 percent of the world's coral reefs. Severe coral bleaching is predicted over summer 2009, caused by high water temperatures.
One-third of the 700-plus species of corals are threatened with extinction. A decade ago, only two percent of corals were endangered.
If CO2 levels continue to rise, coral could be extinct by 2100.
Coral extinction could affect the livelihoods of 500 million people, according to the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.
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