Climate change is the greatest global threat to coral reef ecosystems. Scientific evidence now clearly indicates that the Earth's atmosphere and oceans are warming, and that these changes are primarily due to greenhouse gases from human activities.

As temperatures rise, mass coral bleaching events and infectious disease outbreaks are becoming more frequent. Additionally, carbon dioxide absorbed into the ocean from the atmosphere has already begun to reduce calcification rates in reef-building and reef-associated organisms by altering seawater chemistry through decreases in pH. This process is called ocean acidification.

Climate change will affect coral reef ecosystems, through sea level rise, changes to the frequency and intensity of tropical storms, and altered ocean circulation patterns. When combined, all of these impacts dramatically alter ecosystem function, as well as the goods and services coral reef ecosystems provide to people around the globe.

What We Are Doing

The NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program is actively working with its partners to protect coral reefs and the communities that depend on them by addressing the impacts of climate change and ocean acidification. Our focus is to support effective resilience-based management as the best means to achieve ecosystem-based management goals in a changing climate. Science and research to understand the impacts of these phenomena on coral reef ecosystems form the foundation of our work. We also provide cutting-edge, targeted tools, products, and services to inform on-the-ground management of coral reef ecosystems.

Response to Ocean Change throughout NOAA

• NOAA Coral Reef Information System: Climate Change
• NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory: The Experimental Reef Lab
• NOAA Ocean Acidification Program: Monitoring
• NOAA Coral Reef Watch
• NOAA Fisheries: Coral Health and Threats in the Pacific Islands - Coral Bleaching