Climate change has long been considered as one of the greatest drivers of declining coral reefs, but the specifics of human impact have been largely unverified.
Climate change has long been considered as one of the greatest drivers of declining coral reefs, but the specifics of human impact have been largely unverified.
In a new paper, researchers tracked coral reef health in Hawaii for 20 years — measuring increasing water acidification, land-based pollution, repercussions from a major climate event and rising water temperatures — and illustrated the undeniable contributions of human impact on coral reef health outcomes.
New research by Arizona State University, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center and Bangor University in the U.K. indicates that mitigating both local land and sea-based human impacts, especially in terms of pollutants and over-fishing, provides coral reef ecosystems with the best opportunity to persist under climate change.
Along some highly populated areas on the shorelines of Hawaii, wastewater pollution and urban runoff combine with fishing pressures to put immense stress on coral reefs.
Read more at Arizona State University
Photo Credit: xiSerge via Pixabay
