Dr. Jamison Gove, member of the Hawai'i IEA program and research oceanographer at NOAA's Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, co-lead research that describes how coral reefs benefit from reduced land-sea impacts under ocean warming. The results from this highly collaborative effort between federal, state, academic, and nonprofit environmental agencies article were recently published in the scientific journal Nature.
Coral reefs are among the most productive and biodiverse ocean ecosystems on Earth. Many local human communities depend on tropical coral reefs for cultural practices, fisheries, and coastal protection. Unfortunately, coral reefs are threatened by the combined effects of local human impacts and global climate change.
New research published in Nature demonstrates that integrating land and sea in coastal ocean management supports the continued persistence of coral reef ecosystems in our changing climate. The study was led by NOAA’s Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center and Bangor University in the United Kingdom.
“Our research finds that simultaneously reducing local land- and sea-based human impacts benefits coral reef ecosystems under ocean warming,” says Dr. Jamison Gove, a research oceanographer with the science center and co-lead of this study.