Extinction risk of reef corals, past and present - presented by Dr Wolfgang Kiessling

Extinction risk of reef corals, past and present

Dr Wolfgang Kiessling

Dr Wolfgang Kiessling
Extinction risk of reef corals, past and present
Dr Wolfgang Kiessling
Wolfgang Kiessling
University of Erlangen-Nuremberg

Coral reefs are under increasing pressure from direct human impacts and human-induced climate change. Reef corals are also thought to be at elevated extinction risk but estimates vary profoundly among studies. Works that use lost reef area as a proxy of coral population reduction tend to estimate high extinction risk, whereas approaches using estimates of coral population sizes advocate low extinction risk. The fossil record contributes to this discussion that (i) reef corals have low intrinsic extinction risk, (ii) the loss of reef area is a poor predictor of coral extinction rates, and (iii) reef coral extinction pulses were usually triggered by episodes of profound global warming. Taken together, the deep-time observations support that the current reef crisis is unlikely be develop into a coral mass extinction in the next century of so. In addition, the Red List categorization of reef coral conservation status does not align well with empirical extinctions of the near-time past.

References
  • 1.
    K. E. Carpenter et al. (2008) One-Third of Reef-Building Corals Face Elevated Extinction Risk from Climate Change and Local Impacts. Science
  • 2.
    N. B. Raja et al. (2021) Morphological traits of reef corals predict extinction risk but not conservation status. Global Ecology and Biogeography
  • 3.
    A. Dietzel et al. (2021) The population sizes and global extinction risk of reef-building coral species at biogeographic scales. Nature Ecology & Evolution
Grants
    Deutsche ForschungsgemeinschaftKI 806/17-1
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W. Kiessling (2024, March 7), Extinction risk of reef corals, past and present
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Listed seminar This seminar is open to all
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Video length 31:08
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Disclaimer The views expressed in this seminar are those of the speaker and not necessarily those of the journal