Coral Reefs Still Reeling

摘要

As the International Year of the Reef draws to a close, a new global assessment of corals adds a few bright spots to an otherwise bleak picture of this marine ecosystem. The 304-page Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2008, to be released next week by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, chronicles continued problems from ocean acidification and other effects of global climate change, as well as the impact of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and unusually hot weather in the Caribbean. On the positive side, several huge protected areas have been created in the Pacific, and a Coral Triangle Initiative is under way in Southeast Asia. The assessment is expected to offer lower estimates of reefs effectively lost and critically threatened since the group's 2004 report. But network coordinator Clive Wilkinson warns that any optimism assumes that world leaders will take concerted action over the next 8 to 10 years to rein in climate change.