The capacity of coral reefs to provide ecosystem services relied on by millions of people worldwide has declined by half since the 1950s, according to a new University of British Columbia-led study.

The study offers the first comprehensive look at what climate change, overfishing, and habitat destruction of coral reefs mean for their ecosystem services, or the ability of the reef to provide essential benefits and services to humans, including food, livelihoods, and protection from storms. Overall, the findings showed that the significant loss in coral reef coverage has led to an equally significant loss in the ability of the reef to provide these services.

Other findings are equally bleak: the authors found that global coverage of living corals had declined by about half since the 1950s and consequently, the diversity of species had also declined, by more than 60 per cent.

“It’s a call to action – we’ve been hearing this time and time again from fisheries and  biodiversity research,” said lead author Dr. Tyler Eddy, who conducted the research as a research associate at the UBC Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries (IOF). Now a research scientist at the Fisheries & Marine Institute at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Dr. Eddy said the continuing decline of healthy coral reefs and the quality of habitat they provide is contributing to a global decrease in provision of ecosystem services for the millions of people who rely on them. “We know coral reefs are biodiversity hotspots. And preserving biodiversity not only protects nature, but supports the humans that use these species for cultural, subsistence and livelihood means.”

The researchers analyzed trends for coral reef systems and associated ecosystems worldwide, combining datasets from coral reef surveys, estimating coral reef associated biodiversity, fisheries catches and effort, fisheries impacts on food web structure, and Indigenous consumption of coral reef associated fish. They also analyzed global and country level trends in ecosystem services and how they compared to trends for small island developing states.

As well as declines in reef coverage and biodiversity, the researchers found catches of fishes on coral reefs peaked in 2002 and have steadily declined ever since, despite an increase in fishing effort. The catch per unit effort, often used as an indication of changes in biomass, is now 60 per cent lower than it was in 1950.

Read the full article about coral reefs from Environmental News Network.