Coral reefs provide many benefits to society, including storm protection to shorelines, tourism, and supporting sport and commercial fisheries. They are also crucial for biodiversity, providing a home to 25% of marine life while occupying less than 1% of the ocean floor. However, the rapid decline of coral reefs around the world has significantly reduced those benefits.

Coral reefs have thrived for millions of years in their shallow ocean water environments due to their unique partnerships with the algae that live in their tissues. Corals provide a safe haven and carbon dioxide while their algal symbionts provide them with food and oxygen produced from photosynthesis. Using the corals Orbicella annularis and Orbicella faveolate in the southern Caribbean, researchers at the Carl R.

Coral reefs have long faced problems like overfishing, global warming and pollution — but they’re also threatened by how slow they regenerate.

To reproduce, coral release sperm and eggs and form larvae, which then swim around and attach to a surface, where they begin to develop into coral polyps and grow. They face a variety of competitors, and most don’t survive. If they do survive, it takes years for the coral to be able to reproduce, and even longer for entire reefs to form.