What Science Can Do to Protect Pacific Coral Reefs - Challenges Revealed by Proposed Revisions to the U.S. Endangered Species Act -
- Headline
- Press Release
東京大学
Key Points
◆Prevent policy that expands regulatory exemptions and recommend considering broad protection of vulnerable Acropora corals.
◆Proposed policy changes, introduced following calls to prioritize national security and economic interests, would weaken critical coral reef protections in the West Pacific.
◆Maintaining science-oriented protections and adopting practical, taxonomy-resilient policies are very important to prevent further coral loss in the Pacific.
Co-author Colin Lock (PhD student, University of Technology Sydney) floats above a large table Acropora colony nested within extensive staghorn Acropora thickets in Raja Ampat, Indonesia, an increasingly rare scenery due to Acropora’s sensitivity to environmental change.
[Photo by Colin Anthony]
Overview
A letter published in Science, led by Colin J. Anthony, a PhD student supervised by Associate Professor Shinichiro Maruyama of the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences at the University of Tokyo, and developed with close guidance from Dr. Laurie Raymundo, Director of the University of Guam Marine Laboratory, and colleagues
warns that proposed changes to the U.S. Endangered Species Act could place Pacific coral reefs at serious risk. The study references Guam, a Pacific island under U.S jurisdiction, to show how weakening protection of reef-building corals may accelerate the loss of coral reefs. This reflects recent reports that similar corals have become functionally extinct in Florida.
While the policy debate is taking place within the context of the United States, the research team emphasize that the issue and impacts extend across the Pacific into Japan and Southeast Asia. Coral reefs support fisheries, protect coastlines, and sustain marine biodiversity across a wide region including Polynesia, Micronesia, Philippines, Indonesia, and Japan. The letter explains that protecting coral reefs is particularly challenging because tropical oceans contain extremely high biodiversity, making species-by-species protection unrealistic. Conservation is becoming even more difficult as climate change accelerates rapid coral decline. Therefore protective measures must be implemented before ecosystem collapse become imminent.
To address this challenge, the research team proposes protecting easy-to-identify, high-risk coral groups, such as staghorn Acropora morphotypes (photo), or even extending protection to the entire Acropora genus. These corals are especially sensitive to warming oceans and play a critical role in building and maintaining healthy reef ecosystems. The research team calls for careful, science-based policymaking and warns that without timely action, Pacific coral reefs could follow Caribbean reefs into widespread collapse.
Co-author Colin Lock swimming above a thicket of Acropora corals. [Video by Colin Anthony]
Information on the authors and research team
Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, the University of Tokyo
Shinichiro Maruyama, Associate Professor
Colin Jeffrey Anthony, PhD Student
Publication Information
Journal: Science
Title: Endangered Species Act changes threaten reefs
Authors: Colin J. Anthony, Colin Lock, Steven Mana'oakamai Johnson, Shinichiro Maruyama, Laurie J. Raymundo
DOI: 10.1126/science.aee4748
URL: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aee4748
