#coral

drtomharris.substack.com

Beyond the Threshold: Have Coral Reefs Crossed Earth’s First Climate Tipping Point?

A new global report stresses the vulnerability of coral reefs to warming oceans, but together with affordable technology, provides some hope that time can be bought to protect these vital ecosystems.

www.zmescience.com

Rise of the Plasticorals: Plastic Has Fused With Coral in Okinawa and Could Enter the Rock Record

Future geologists may one day find an unmistakable signature of human activity in old reef sediments: coral rubble shot through with melted plastic. On Okinawa, Japan, researchers surveying beach litter found 5 pieces of dead coral fused with bright blue, green, yellow, or red plastic. In a new study, scientists from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology and the University of the Ryukyus call the hybrids “plasticorals”—a new member of a growing family of materials in which synthetic polymers become physically incorporated into stone, sediment, or biological remains. The samples turned up almost by accident. In August 2024, a three-person team walked 100-meter stretches of three Okinawan beaches at low tide, looking for ordinary marine litter. They found three plasticorals at Sosu Beach and one each at Ibu and Odo. The researchers stress that 5 specimens are far too few to say how common the material is. They haven’t designed the surveys to search for it systematically. Back in the laboratory, Raman spectroscopy identified four of the plastic portions as polyethylene and one as polypropylene, two ubiquitous plastics used in packaging and consumer products. Microscopy and X-ray micro-CT scans showed why these objects were more than bits of trash...

academic.oup.com

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www.biorxiv.org

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.17.752451v1

news.mongabay.com

Tourism has potential to slow coral decline at Bali travel hotspot: Study

Sanur is where tourism took off in Bali. A coastal town overlooking the Lombok Strait where the Pacific Ocean flows into the Indian Ocean, artists and travelers began frequenting its shores in the 1920s. Today, the local economy still depends on income from visitors seeking its sun-kissed sands and cozy waters that hold the promise of encounters with all manner of tropical marine life. But new research indicates all is not well with Sanur’s precious marine ecosystems. Its coral reefs are steadily degrading, despite multiple efforts to rehabilitate them by planting coral fragments or building artificial reefs. The recent study, published in Ocean & Coastal Management, found reef restoration initiatives in Sanur often take place without first addressing the primary drivers of coral decline, such as sediment runoff and wastewater discharge. “People see the visible impact on the coral reef, so they feel it’s urgent to do something about it there,” study lead author Min Chung, a master’s student at the University of Tokyo, told Mongabay in an interview. “But in reality, and efficiency wise, it’s obviously more effective to address the more fundamental drivers [of coral loss].” By analyzing reef health data and interviews with 18 stakeholders who have...