Workshop on Coral Bleaching, Coral Reef Ecosystems, and Global Climate Change

珊瑚礁是地质上古老的生态系统，为全球气候变化提供了极好的历史证据，也是现存生态系统对这种变化作出反应的一些最佳迹象。然而，一些人认为，珊瑚礁不仅仅是历史意义上的全球气候变化的指标。最近在媒体、珊瑚礁研究人员之间的讨论和关于珊瑚“白化”主题的证词中有相当多的猜测，一些人将这种现象解释为珊瑚礁对全球气候变化引起的海洋表面温度升高（SST）的应激反应。这种解释遭到了科学界许多人的相当大的怀疑，然而，它仍然引起了媒体和国会的相当大的关注。珊瑚白化可能是当前气候变化的一个指标。本次研讨会将满足评估我们对珊瑚白化的认识状况的迫切需要，并在更广泛的意义上确定未来十年的研究需求，以了解潜在的全球气候变化对珊瑚礁等浅水热带海洋生态系统的影响。

Coral reefs are geologically ancient ecosystems that have provided excellent historical evidence of global climatic changes and some of the best indications extant of ecosystem response to such changes. Yet coral reefs are believed by some to be indicators of global climate change in more than just the historical sense. There has been considerable recent speculation in the press, discussion among reef researchers, and testimony on the topic of coral "bleaching," a phenomenon that some interpret as a stress reaction of reef corals to elevated sea surface temperature (SST's) caused by global climate change. This interpretation has been met with considerable skepticism from many in the scientific community, yet it has nonetheless captured considerable attention in the press and in Congress. Coral bleaching is a possible present indicator of climate change. This workshop will meet a critical need to assess the state of our knowledge about coral bleaching and, in the larger sense, to determine research needs for the next decade for understanding the effects of potential global climate change on shallow water tropical marine ecosystems such as coral reefs.