World’s coral reefs are losing recovery time between marine heatwaves, major global report warns

‘What concerns me most is that we’re steadily eroding the conditions they need to recover,’ said lead author Manuel González Rivero (Source: Australian Institute of Marine Science)

Economy

Unlock article and share
By Wester van Gaal,
Amsterdam
,

The world’s coral reefs have ever-shorter windows to recover between marine heatwaves, according to the most comprehensive assessment of reef health yet published.

The report, published by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) on Monday (31 August), is based on more than 21 million observations from 36,886 reef sites in 124 countries and territories, gathered over more than 40 years. 

The proportion of reef surface covered by living coral (so-called hard coral) has fallen by 9.5 percent compared with the 1980–2009 average. 

It fell from a little over 30 percent during the 2009 to 2020 period to 25.8 percent in 2024, which the report’s researchers attribute primarily to climate-driven heat stress. 

Heat stress causes bleaching. And bleaching happens when abnormally warm sea temperatures cause corals to expel algae (which gives them their colour) living in their tissue. 

If the heat persists for long enough, the corals die. This has happened four times since 1998, in ever shorter intervals. 

To read this story, log in or subscribe

Enjoy access to all articles and 25 years of archives, comment and gift articles. Become a subscriber for as low as €1,75 per week.

Read without limits
Already a subscriber? Login
Unlock article and share

Latest from Climate Change

Last year’s output from Norway’s fossil-fuel giant ‘will kill up to 58,000 people’

‘Do not believe my prime minister’: Youngest-ever Norwegian MP urges EU to resist Oslo’s Arctic-oil lobbying 

Latest from Green Economy

BRICS countries condemn EU carbon tax as ‘punitive and protectionist’

Italy’s fuel tax cuts don’t make EU list for budget flexibility, despite Meloni’s appeal

Latest from Economy

Dutch government think‑tank pushes EU for tougher tariffs and controls on China

Greek billionaire’s ships carried €2.35bn of Russian Arctic gas to Europe this year

'What concerns me most is that we're steadily eroding the conditions they need to recover,' said lead author Manuel González Rivero (Source: Australian Institute of Marine Science)

Topics

• Biodiversity+ Follow topic by email
• Climate Change+ Follow topic by email
• Green Economy+ Follow topic by email

Author Bio

Wester van Gaal is our economics editor. He joined EUobserver in September 2021. Previously, he was editor-in-chief of Motherboard, Vice Media’s technology and science website, and worked as a climate economy journalist for The Correspondent. He is based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

+ Follow author by email