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  • Review Article
  • Published:

Layering solutions to conserve tropical coral reefs in crisis

Nature Reviews Biodiversity volume 1, pages 788–805 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Shallow-water tropical coral reef ecosystems face an escalating crisis driven by cumulative local pressures and global stressors resulting from climate change. In this Review, we assess the status and trends of coral reefs and their future trajectories under local and global stressors, and focus on identifying and assembling the solutions required to avoid collapse of coral reef ecosystems. A large fraction of coral reefs has been degraded, and a disproportionate share of these losses has occurred in the past decade. Conservation efforts must urgently focus on layering a suite of coordinated, innovative interventions to mitigate local and global stressors; increase the resistance of coral colonies, both wild and outplanted, to thermal stress; repair ecosystem functions, such as grazing, that support resilient reef ecosystems; expand area-based protection; and cost-effectively restore coral reef ecosystems and their services at the scale required to meet global biodiversity goals. We call for a major, collaborative effort around a global emergency action plan that catalyses the governance, financial, management and scientific actions required to address the coral reef crisis and mobilizes society to promote global action while empowering Indigenous and local communities’ agency and leadership in driving local action to conserve and restore coral reefs.

Key points

  • Shallow-water, tropical coral reefs are essential socioecosystems, supporting 30% of marine biodiversity and 1 billion human livelihoods while covering <1% of ocean area; yet well over half of global live coral cover might have been lost, and the remainder is at imminent risk of ecosystem collapse as climate warming exceeds 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.

  • Efforts to remove local pressures, particularly focusing on mitigating overfishing and impacts on water quality at the watershed scale, mitigating climate change, and conserving and restoring coral reefs, that are embedded in commitments under the United Nations Global Framework Climate Change Convention and the Convention on Biological Diversity are not being deployed at the pace required to address the coral crisis.

  • Many scleractinian coral species are likely to escape extinction by extending their biogeographical limit polewards, at average rates of about 20 km per decade, thereby colonizing environments previously too cold to establish viable populations; however, the already-warm equatorial areas, where coral reefs may experience large losses, will harbour novel ecosystems that will be unlikely to provide the ecosystem services coral reefs currently provide.

  • As projections of coral reef trajectories under climate change diverge greatly, reflecting the diverse responses of coral reefs to marine heat waves at regional and global scales, improving the capacity of models to resolve local scales and incorporate adaptive processes and interventions will improve their value to guide conservation and restoration efforts.

  • Avoiding the functional extinction of coral reefs requires that multiple solutions are layered in a coordinated manner and deployed concurrently across coral bioregions; these solutions, which should contribute to increasing thermal resistance of restored coral reefs, must be adapted to local context and ensure the involvement of Indigenous people and local communities as main stakeholders and beneficiaries in delivering the needed conservation efforts.

  • Facing the coral crisis demands a social tipping point that catalyses society to demand and engage in action to address this challenge through cultural narratives that appeal to human aspirations for a better future, and that provide new ways to connect people and nature, and exert our collective responsibility to maintain healthy coral reefs towards future generations.

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Fig. 1: Distribution of local pressures on coral reefs.
Fig. 2: Effects of local and global stressors on coral reef functional groups.
Fig. 3: Global coral bleaching events by decade (1980–2020).
Fig. 4: Interventions and outcomes for coral reef conservation and recovery.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank L. Afiq-Rosli for technical advice. C.M.D. and S.G.K. were supported by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology through baseline funding awarded to C.M.D.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Carlos M. Duarte, David O. Obura.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marine Science Program, Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division (BESE), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    Carlos M. Duarte, Shannon G. Klein & David J. Suggett

  2. Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada

    Jessica Blythe

  3. Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS), Lowestoft, UK

    Michelle J. Devlin

  4. Environmental Economics Section, Centre Scientifique de Monaco, Monaco, Principality of Monaco

    Nathalie Hilmi

  5. Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, Queensland, Australia

    Britta Schaffelke

  6. KAUST Coral Restoration Initiative, KAUST, Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    David J. Suggett

  7. Climate Change Cluster, Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    David J. Suggett

  8. Locally Managed Marine Area (LMMA) Network International Trust, Suva, Fiji Islands

    Alifereti Tawake

  9. Coastal Oceans Research and Development–Indian Ocean (CORDIO) East Africa, Mombasa, Kenya

    David O. Obura

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Contributions

C.M.D. and D.O. designed and coordinated the research. All authors contributed to writing, revision, and approval of the submission.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carlos M. Duarte.

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Nature Reviews Biodiversity thanks Lorenzo Alvarez-Filip, Sebastian Ferse and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Related links

Australian Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program: https://gbrrestoration.org/

Coral Restoration Consortium: https://www.crc.world/

G20 Coral R&D Accelerator Platform: https://cordap.org/

Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework: https://www.cbd.int/gbf

UN Convention for Biological Diversity: https://www.cbd.int

UN Framework Climate Change Convention: https://unfccc.int

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Duarte, C.M., Blythe, J., Devlin, M.J. et al. Layering solutions to conserve tropical coral reefs in crisis. Nat. Rev. Biodivers. 1, 788–805 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44358-025-00106-0

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