Rats are disrupting the flow of nutrients towards the sea on many tropical islands – this has consequences for fish behaviour and the wider ecosystem.
Researchers discovered five new species of black corals, including this Hexapathes bikofskii growing out of a nautilus shell more than 2,500 feet (760 meters) below the surface.
Jeremy Horowitz
Black corals provide critical habitat for many creatures that live in the dark, often barren, deep sea, and researchers are learning more about these rare corals with every dive.
Establishing the age of K'gari (Fraser Island) confirms it emerged before the reef, despite the climate being suitable for coral growth long before then.
An underwater forest formed by the purple gorgonian (Paramuricea clavata) off Marseille at a depth of 60 metres.
Romain Bricoult / CC BY-NC-ND
Corals in the Persian Gulf are tough - they can withstand temperatures that would kill corals elsewhere. And there’s good news: it’s easy to cross-breed their heat-tolerance genes into other corals.
Researchers found 16% of coral species have not been seen for many years. This finding is alarming, because local extinctions suggest global extinctions may be looming.
The Chagos Reef was vibrant before the heat wave.
Ken Marks/Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation
The Pacific Ocean produces oxygen, helps regulates the weather, provides food and livelihoods. It’s a place of fun, solace and spiritual connection. But its delicate ecology is under threat.
Californians love their coast and strongly oppose offshore drilling. Will they support converting old oil rigs to artificial reefs – a policy that benefits both marine life and oil companies?
Recent marine heatwaves have devastated crucial coastal habitats, including kelp forests, seagrass meadows and coral reefs.
Dan Smale
Dan Smale, Marine Biological Association and Thomas Wernberg, The University of Western Australia
Marine heatwaves, like their land counterparts, are growing hotter and longer. Sea species in southeastern Australia, southeast Asia, northwestern Africa, Europe and eastern Canada are most at risk.
Solenosmilia coral reef with unidentified solitary yellow corals.
CSIRO
A massive new discovery this summer of miles of corals in deep waters off South Carolina shows how much we have yet to learn about life on the ocean floor.
A healthy coral reef on Millennium Atoll, Southern Line Islands.
Brian Zgliczynski
Field samples, satellite measurements and isotopic data have shed new light on corals’ eating habits.
Staghorn and tabular corals suffered mass die-offs, robbing many individual reefs of their characteristic shapes.
ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies/ Mia Hoogenboom
The 2016 bleaching event resulted in 30% mortality on the Great Barrier Reef, with many corals dying of the heat before they bleached and the loss of branching corals creating less complex reef structure.
The increasingly bleached coral at Black Point on the Cobourg Peninsula is a worrying sign of what’s to come for other coral reefs in Australia.
Alan Withers
Coral reefs in the Asia-Pacific have been deluged with an estimated 11.1 billion pieces of plastic waste, increasing the risk of coral disease more than 20-fold.
Giant triton molluscs are a useful ally in battling the coral-grazing crown-of-thorns starfish.
AAP Image/AIMS, K Goodbun
The federal government’s new funding aims to spread the net wide in investigating possible ways to protect the Great Barrier Reef’s corals. Winning this battle will require a wide range of weapons.