Infographic: How does climate change affect coral reefs?

Climate change is the world's greatest threat to coral reef ecosystems and scientific evidence clearly shows that the Earth's atmosphere and oceans are warming. Climate change affects coral reef ecosystems through sea level rise, changes in frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones, and changes in ocean circulation patterns. In summary, all these effects dramatically change the function of the ecosystem and the products and services that coral reef ecosystems provide to people all over the world. Our infographic describes the process from sea level rise to ocean acidification.

Today's coral reefs are threatened all over the world (ICRI, NOAA, Reefbase). This is not new, but the extent to which coral will die in the world is uneasy. The impact of sustainable climate change, which has a measurable rise in saltwater temperature, directly affects coral reefs as the third global whitening event in 2015/16. This incident led to coral mass deaths (NOAA announced the third global coral bleaching event, ElNiño extended the longest worldwide coral bleaching event)

Climate change is the world's greatest threat to coral reef ecosystems and scientific evidence clearly shows that the Earth's atmosphere and oceans are warming. Climate change affects coral reef ecosystems through sea level rise, changes in frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones, and changes in ocean circulation patterns. In summary, all these effects dramatically change the function of the ecosystem and the products and services that coral reef ecosystems provide to people all over the world. Our infographic describes the process from sea level rise to ocean acidification.

The most famous example of marine ecosystems at risk of climate change are coral reefs. Coral reefs are the most diverse ecosystems in the ocean, supporting at least hundreds of thousands. Corals are very susceptible to the effects of climate change due to their narrow physiological limits, close proximity to populated areas, and the threats associated with these issues (Hoegh-Guldberg 2005; Knowlton and Jackson 2008). To prevent dangerous ocean storms, millions of people around the world rely on coral reef fishing and tourism to maintain living and coral structures (Hoegh-Guldberg et al., 2007).