Latest Fringing reef Stories

China’s coral reefs have suffered a devastating 80 per cent decline in recent decades, driven mainly by the country’s unrestrained economic development, according to a new international scientific study. The first comprehensive survey of the state of corals along mainland China and in the South China Sea reports a grim picture of decline, degradation and destruction resulting from coastal development, pollution and overfishing. A new study by Professor Terry Hughes and Matthew Young...

Can fish save coral reefs from dying? UC Santa Barbara researchers have found one case where fish have helped coral reefs to recover from cyclones and predators. Coral reefs worldwide are increasingly disturbed by environmental events that are causing their decline, yet some coral reefs recover. UCSB researchers have discovered that the health of coral reefs in the South Pacific island of Moorea, in French Polynesia, may be due to protection by parrotfish and surgeonfish that eat algae,...

When reef fish get a mouthful of sand, coral reefs can drown.That's the latest startling evidence to emerge from research into the likely fate of reefs under climate change and rising sea levels, at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS)."We've known for a while that having a lot of sediment in the water is bad for corals and can smother them.  What we didn't realize is how permanent this state of affairs can become, to the point where it may prevent the corals ever...