Journal ArticleDOI
Global Trajectories of the Long-Term Decline of Coral Reef Ecosystems
John M. Pandolfi,Roger Bradbury,Enric Sala,Terry P. Hughes,Karen A. Bjorndal,Richard G. Cooke,Deborah A. McArdle,Loren McClenachan,Marah J. H. Newman,Gustavo Paredes,Robert R. Warner,Jeremy B. C. Jackson,Jeremy B. C. Jackson +12 more
TLDR
Records are compiled, extending back thousands of years, of the status and trends of seven major guilds of carnivores, herbivores, and architectural species from 14 regions that indicate reefs will not survive without immediate protection from human exploitation over large spatial scales.Abstract:
Degradation of coral reef ecosystems began centuries ago, but there is no global summary of the magnitude of change. We compiled records, extending back thousands of years, of the status and trends of seven major guilds of carnivores, herbivores, and architectural species from 14 regions. Large animals declined before small animals and architectural species, and Atlantic reefs declined before reefs in the Red Sea and Australia, but the trajectories of decline were markedly similar worldwide. All reefs were substantially degraded long before outbreaks of coral disease and bleaching. Regardless of these new threats, reefs will not survive without immediate protection from human exploitation over large spatial scales.read more
Citations
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A Global Map of Human Impact on Marine Ecosystems
Benjamin S. Halpern,Shaun Walbridge,Kimberly A. Selkoe,Kimberly A. Selkoe,Carrie V. Kappel,Fiorenza Micheli,Caterina D'Agrosa,Caterina D'Agrosa,John F. Bruno,Kenneth S. Casey,Colin M. Ebert,Helen E. Fox,Rod Fujita,Dennis Heinemann,Hunter S. Lenihan,Elizabeth M. P. Madin,Matthew T. Perry,Elizabeth R. Selig,Elizabeth R. Selig,Mark Spalding,Robert S. Steneck,Reg Watson +21 more
TL;DR: This article developed an ecosystem-specific, multiscale spatial model to synthesize 17 global data sets of anthropogenic drivers of ecological change for 20 marine ecosystems and found that no area is unaffected by human influence and that a large fraction (41%) is strongly affected by multiple drivers.
Journal ArticleDOI
Impacts of biodiversity loss on ocean ecosystem services.
Boris Worm,Edward B. Barbier,Nicola Beaumont,J. Emmett Duffy,Carl Folke,Carl Folke,Benjamin S. Halpern,Jeremy B. C. Jackson,Jeremy B. C. Jackson,Heike K. Lotze,Fiorenza Micheli,Stephen R. Palumbi,Enric Sala,Kimberley A. Selkoe,John J. Stachowicz,Reg Watson +15 more
TL;DR: The authors analyzed local experiments, long-term regional time series, and global fisheries data to test how biodiversity loss affects marine ecosystem services across temporal and spatial scales, concluding that marine biodiversity loss is increasingly impairing the ocean's capacity to provide food, maintain water quality, and recover from perturbations.
Journal ArticleDOI
Climate Change, Human Impacts, and the Resilience of Coral Reefs
Terry P. Hughes,Andrew H. Baird,David R. Bellwood,M. Card,Sean R. Connolly,Carl Folke,Richard K. Grosberg,Ove Hoegh-Guldberg,Jeremy B. C. Jackson,Jeremy B. C. Jackson,Joan A. Kleypas,Janice M. Lough,Paul Marshall,Magnus Nyström,Stephen R. Palumbi,John M. Pandolfi,Brian R. Rosen,Jonathan Roughgarden +17 more
TL;DR: International integration of management strategies that support reef resilience need to be vigorously implemented, and complemented by strong policy decisions to reduce the rate of global warming.
Journal ArticleDOI
Accelerating loss of seagrasses across the globe threatens coastal ecosystems
Michelle Waycott,Carlos M. Duarte,Tim J. B. Carruthers,Robert J. Orth,William C. Dennison,Suzanne V. Olyarnik,Ainsley Calladine,James W. Fourqurean,Kenneth L. Heck,A. Randall Hughes,Gary A. Kendrick,W. Judson Kenworthy,Frederick T. Short,Susan L. Williams +13 more
TL;DR: This comprehensive global assessment of 215 studies found that seagrasses have been disappearing at a rate of 110 km2 yr−1 since 1980 and that 29% of the known areal extent has disappeared since seagRass areas were initially recorded in 1879.
Journal ArticleDOI
Confronting the coral reef crisis
TL;DR: The ecological roles of critical functional groups (for both corals and reef fishes) that are fundamental to understanding resilience and avoiding phase shifts from coral dominance to less desirable, degraded ecosystems are reviewed.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Historical overfishing and the recent collapse of coastal ecosystems.
Jeremy B. C. Jackson,Jeremy B. C. Jackson,Michael Xavier Kirby,Wolfgang H Berger,Karen A. Bjorndal,Louis W. Botsford,Bruce J. Bourque,Roger Bradbury,Richard G. Cooke,Jon M. Erlandson,James A. Estes,Terry P. Hughes,Susan M. Kidwell,Carina B. Lange,Hunter S. Lenihan,John M. Pandolfi,Charles H. Peterson,Robert S. Steneck,Mia J. Tegner,Robert R. Warner +19 more
TL;DR: Paleoecological, archaeological, and historical data show that time lags of decades to centuries occurred between the onset of overfishing and consequent changes in ecological communities, because unfished species of similar trophic level assumed the ecological roles of over-fished species until they too were overfished or died of epidemic diseases related to overcrowding as mentioned in this paper.
Journal ArticleDOI
Climate Change, Human Impacts, and the Resilience of Coral Reefs
Terry P. Hughes,Andrew H. Baird,David R. Bellwood,M. Card,Sean R. Connolly,Carl Folke,Richard K. Grosberg,Ove Hoegh-Guldberg,Jeremy B. C. Jackson,Jeremy B. C. Jackson,Joan A. Kleypas,Janice M. Lough,Paul Marshall,Magnus Nyström,Stephen R. Palumbi,John M. Pandolfi,Brian R. Rosen,Jonathan Roughgarden +17 more
TL;DR: International integration of management strategies that support reef resilience need to be vigorously implemented, and complemented by strong policy decisions to reduce the rate of global warming.
Journal ArticleDOI
Climate change, coral bleaching and the future of the world's coral reefs
TL;DR: The results suggest that the thermal tolerances of reef-building corals are likely to be exceeded every year within the next few decades, and suggests that unrestrained warming cannot occur without the loss and degradation of coral reefs on a global scale.
Journal ArticleDOI
Catastrophes, phase shifts, and large-scale degradation of a Caribbean coral reef.
TL;DR: A dramatic phase shift has occurred in Jamaica, producing a system dominated by fleshy macroalgae (more than 90 percent cover), and immediate implementation of management procedures is necessary to avoid further catastrophic damage.
Book
Sharks of the World: an Annotated and Illustrated Catalogue of Shark Species Known to Date
TL;DR: Sharks of the world :an annotated and illustrated catalogue of shark species known to date as mentioned in this paper, is an annotated catalogue of sharks species known in the wild and has been published for the first time.
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