Gardner Toby A, Côté Isabelle M, Gill Jennifer A, Grant Alastair, Watkinson Andrew R
School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK.
Science. 2003 Aug 15;301(5635):958-60. doi: 10.1126/science.1086050. Epub 2003 Jul 17.
We report a massive region-wide decline of corals across the entire Caribbean basin, with the average hard coral cover on reefs being reduced by 80%, from about 50% to 10% cover, in three decades. Our meta-analysis shows that patterns of change in coral cover are variable across time periods but largely consistent across subregions, suggesting that local causes have operated with some degree of synchrony on a region-wide scale. Although the rate of coral loss has slowed in the past decade compared to the 1980s, significant declines are persisting. The ability of Caribbean coral reefs to cope with future local and global environmental change may be irretrievably compromised.
我们报告了整个加勒比海盆地珊瑚大规模区域性衰退的情况，在三十年里，珊瑚礁上硬珊瑚的平均覆盖率从约50%降至10%，减少了80%。我们的荟萃分析表明，珊瑚覆盖率的变化模式在不同时间段有所不同，但在各次区域基本一致，这表明局部原因在区域范围内在一定程度上同步起作用。尽管与20世纪80年代相比，过去十年珊瑚损失的速度有所放缓，但显著下降仍在持续。加勒比海珊瑚礁应对未来局部和全球环境变化的能力可能会受到无法挽回的损害。
