Scientific Meeting - The climate change threat to corals

Tropical coral reefs have the highest species diversity of all marine ecosystems. They are also a critical source of food for over a billion people and provide other important services to mankind especially through coastal protection.

Reef-building corals, however, are in trouble. Overfishing of reef associated species, destructive fishing practices, coastal development and pollution have severely degraded reefs worldwide and significantly decreased their resilience to disease and the impacts of climate change.

In 1998 the world's first mass-bleaching event occurred, killing in one stroke an estimated 16% of all the world's coral reefs. Increasing global temperatures resulting from increases in anthropogenic CO₂ and other greenhouse gases means that the frequency of such events will increase in the next 50 to 100 years.

The oceans are also absorbing much of this excess CO₂, making them more acidic and lowering the concentration in seawater of aragonite, the form of calcium carbonate that corals build their skeletons from. This is already reducing the rate of reef growth and is likely to severely impact both tropical and deep-sea coral reefs in the near future.

Leading experts will present the latest findings on the current state of reef-building corals and coral reefs and what must be done now to save them for future generations.

Organised by Paul Pearce-Kelly, Senior Curator, ZSL and Dr Alex Rogers, Institute of Zoology, ZSL.

Talks
The coral reef squeeze: severity and synergisms of three increasing threats to coral reefs - Professor Charles Sheppard, University of Warwick;
Response of the coral symbiosis to climate change: the 'Achilles heel' of photosynthesising animals - John R. Turner, Bangor University; and
Short and longer term impacts of coral bleaching on coral reef fish - Nicholas Polunin, Newcastle University

Please note that this event has already taken place.

The climate change threat to corals Scientific Meeting abstracts (87 KB)

The talks are free and open to the public (no advance booking or registration required). Talks will begin at 6.00pm; doors open at 5.00pm and seats will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis. A dinner with the speakers will follow this Scientific Meeting and places must be booked in advance. Please download and complete the above booking form for further information.

Further Information: please contact Joy Hayward, Scientific Meetings Coordinator, Zoological Society of London, Regents Park, London NW1 4RY.
Tel:+44 (0)20 7449 6227. Fax: +44 (0)20 7449 6411. E-mail: joy.hayward@zsl.org.

Related links
ZSL Scientific Meetings
Map showing ZSL Meeting Rooms