Published in

National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 21(118), 2021

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2015265118

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Global declines in coral reef calcium carbonate production under ocean acidification and warming

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Significance The growth of coral reefs is threatened by the dual stressors of ocean warming and acidification. Despite a wealth of studies assessing the impacts of climate change on individual taxa, projections of their impacts on coral reef net carbonate production are limited. By projecting impacts across 233 different locations, we demonstrate that the majority of coral reefs will be unable to maintain positive net carbonate production globally by the year 2100 under representative concentration pathways RCP4.5 and 8.5, while even under RCP2.6, coral reefs will suffer reduced accretion rates. Our results provide quantitative projections of how different climate change stressors will influence whole ecosystem carbonate production across coral reefs in all major ocean basins.