IUCN warns 96% of shallow-water reef systems face critical risk

An international conservation assessment classified 96% of shallow-water coral reef systems as critically endangered, warning they could disappear by 2075 as ocean warming and heat waves drive their decline, according to The Korea Times.

Coral reefs sustain a quarter of marine species while supplying seafood, supporting tourism and buffering coastlines against storms and erosion. Their collapse would mean losing ecosystems that support both marine life and coastal livelihoods.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature presented its first global Red List assessment of coral reef ecosystems on the sidelines of a U.N. biodiversity conference in Albania, The Korea Times reported. It examined 127 tropical and subtropical ecoregions containing 188,362 square kilometers of reefs.

The critically endangered classification extended to the Great Barrier Reef, Coral Triangle, Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System and Red Sea coral reefs. The assessment identified climate change as the main threat, alongside pressures from pollution, overfishing and coastal development.

Reef collapse does not mean the entire underwater structure vanishes. According to the assessment described by The Korea Times, hard corals give way to algae, rubble and sponges, leaving the ecosystem unable to sustain its previous diversity of marine life.

A separate IUCN study published in Nature a week earlier found nearly 44% of reef-building coral species faced an elevated risk of extinction because of climate change. A survey conducted a year earlier found harmful bleaching had reached 84% of the ocean’s reefs, in what the report described as the most intense bleaching event on record.

Mishal Gudka, scientific lead of the global assessment, said reefs retain the capacity to recover from severe bleaching, according to The Korea Times. Experts said cutting emissions and easing pollution, overfishing and coastal development pressures could help reefs survive.