Most species of tiny coral reef fish are overlooked because of their small size. Now, their importance for coral reef ecosystems has put these fish and their unique way of life in the limelight.
(Sinclair-Taylor Tane)
New research reveals that miniature, brightly coloured fish play an outsized role in the marine food chain in coral reefs.
Corals at Scott Reef in 2012, and at the same site during the 2016 mass bleaching.
James Gilmour/AIMS
The Western Australian coral reefs may not be as well known as the Great Barrier Reef, but they’re just as large and diverse. And they too have been devastated by cyclones and coral bleaching.
Maria Beger
A new study found shallow water corals with high temperature tolerance in their DNA. Could they make reefs more resilient to climate change?
Underwater view of waves breaking over a healthy coral reef, reducing wave energy at the shoreline that can cause flooding.
Curt Storlazzi, USGS
A new report shows that coral reefs reduce damage from floods across the United States and its trust territories by more than $1.8 billion every year – and pinpoints that value state by state.
Bette Willis/AAP
After repeated bleaching in 2016 and 2017 corals on the Great Barrier Reef are producing far fewer offspring.
AAP Image/Stuart Parker
Marine heatwaves have caused coral bleaching in one of the most isolated ecosystems in the world.
Children play on a beach in Palau, in the western Pacific Ocean. The country was the first to place a sweeping ban on sunscreen to protect its reefs.
(AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)
As the mid-winter break draws crowds to beaches, tourists may be wondering if their sunscreen is toxic to coral reefs.
Solenosmilia coral reef with unidentified solitary yellow corals.
CSIRO
In the cold southern oceans, underwater mountains support deep-sea reefs.
A coral reef in Chagos, British Indian Ocean Territory, experiencing catastrophic bleaching in 2015.
Anderson B. Mayfield
A coral biologist sampled corals from the most remote reaches of the Indo-Pacific and discovered that all of them show signs of stress.
Neil Walton Photography / shutterstock
The Maldives may end up with perfect conditions for reef island building, but no new coral to build islands with.
Sangalaki Island, Indonesia.
The Coral Reef Image Bank image provide by Simon Pierce.
Coral reefs are in trouble, but other marine species are also feeling the strain but are off the conservation radar.
Many Caribbean reefs are now dominated by sponges.
from www.shutterstock.com
Marine sponges are ancient organisms that have survived mass extinctions. Many are more tolerant of climate change and may dominate over corals in future reef systems.
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.
Volodymyr Goinyk/Shutterstock
Researching the most resilient corals could help us find ways to better protect reefs in the future.
Building an artificial reef.
Auspicious/Shutterstock
Coral reefs are in crisis around the world, and may disappear entirely. 3D printing is a new idea to help them – but it won’t be a cure all.
A three-banded clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris ) navigates the anemones of the Andaman Coral Reef, India.
Ritiks/Wikipedia
Our children all know the little clownfish Nemo, star of the Pixar film. But why does he have three stripes, rather than one or two? Developmental and evolutionary biology are revealing the answer.
Successive governments have seen the Great Barrier Reef not just as a scientific wonder, but as a channel to further economic development.
Superjoseph/Shutterstock.com
The $444 million awarded to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation has been criticised as a politically calculated move. But governments have been asking what the reef can do for them ever since colonial times.
acro_phuket / shutterstock
Scientists have used ‘tree rings’ in coral to identify centuries of stress.
Silent Evolution by Jason deCaires Taylor. Taylor makes sculptures and sinks them beneath the sea to create artificial reefs.
© Jason deCaires Taylor
Not everything humans put in the ocean is garbage. From walls of tyres to sunken sculptures, reef restoration is both a science and an art.
stockphoto-graf
New findings from the Chagos Islands are a perfect parable for the Anthropocene.