The Impact of Climate Change on Coral Reef Ecosystems
The Impact of Climate Change on Coral Reef Ecosystems
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DOI：
10.1007/978-94-007-0114-4_22
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发表时间：
2011-01-01
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影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Hoegh-Guldberg, Ove
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文献类型：
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作者：
Hoegh-Guldberg, Ove
燃烧化石燃料、砍伐森林和改变土地利用等人类活动极大地改变了大气中二氧化碳和甲烷等温室气体的浓度。这些变化导致全球变暖和海洋酸化，这两者都通过增加热应力和海洋酸度以及碳酸盐离子浓度下降对珊瑚礁生态系统构成严重威胁。已观察到的对珊瑚礁的影响包括大规模珊瑚白化增加，钙化率下降，以及一系列其他微妙但至关重要的生理和生态过程的变化。几乎没有证据表明造礁珊瑚和其他生物能够适应这些变化，从而得出结论，到本世纪中叶，珊瑚礁生态系统将在全球范围内变得罕见。然而，限制大气中二氧化碳的增长以及减少过度捕捞和水质下降等局部压力，为避免珊瑚礁的惨淡未来带来了相当大的希望。鉴于珊瑚礁对数百万人的生计的重要性，必须作为极其紧迫的事项采取此类行动。
Human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation and changing land use have dramatically altered the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. These changes have resulted in global warming and ocean acidification, both of which pose serious threats to coral reef ecosystems through increased thermal stress and ocean acidity as well as declining carbonate ion concentrations. Observed impacts on coral reefs include increased mass coral bleaching, declining calcification rates, and a range of other changes to subtle yet fundamentally important physiological and ecological processes. There is little evidence that reef-building corals and other organisms will be able to adapt to these changes leading to the conclusion reef ecosystems will become rare globally by the middle of the current century. Constraining the growth of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as well as reducing local stresses such as overfishing and declining water quality, however, holds considerable hope for avoiding this gloomy future for coral reefs. Given the importance of coral reefs to the livelihoods of millions of people, actions such as these must be pursued as a matter of extreme urgency.