SYDNEY, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- About 44 percent of reef-building coral species face an increased risk of extinction, with climate change-related heat stress as the main driver of population declines, new research finds.
Researchers from organizations including the Australian Institute of Marine Science and the University of Queensland reassessed the status of 774 reef-building coral species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, updating a 2008 assessment, according to a summary of the study published recently on the Australian Science Media Center website.
Of the species assessed, 340 had a higher relative risk of extinction, including 33 critically endangered, 251 endangered and 56 vulnerable species. Heat stress over the next 30 years was the most important driver of risk for 93 percent of the species considered at high risk, according to the study published in Nature.
The proportion of threatened species varied by region, with 43 percent of coral species in the Indo-Pacific, which includes Australia's Great Barrier Reef, classified as threatened, compared with 50 percent in the Atlantic, the research showed.
Coral reefs support diverse marine life and provide economic and social benefits to more than 100 tropical countries. Warming associated with climate change is a major threat to coral reefs, causing bleaching events with increasing frequency, researchers said, adding that in 2008, one-third of reef-building coral species were classified as threatened in the first IUCN Red List assessment.
The researchers warned the proportion of threatened species could be higher following the three hottest years on record from 2023 to 2025, which included a global coral bleaching event, and called for greater efforts to limit global warming to protect the remaining coral populations. ■
