Anticipated Consequences of Increasing Temperature and Ocean Acidification on Cold-Water Coral Reefs and Options for Managing Impacts

Abstract:

The deep sea hosts some of the world’s largest, oldest, and most sensitive ecosystems. Climate change and ocean acidification are likely to have severe implications for many deep-sea ecosystems and communities, but what, if anything, can be done to mitigate these threats is poorly understood. This presentation will focus on: the climate related threats cold-water coral reef ecosystems face in the coming decades, the current state of knowledge regarding reef-forming cold water coral species responses to increasing temperature and ocean acidification, and conclusions reached by an expert panel tasked with prioritizing management options for legislatively protected cold-water coral reefs off southeast Australia that are likely to be severely degraded within decades due to climate change. The panel explored seventeen possible options spanning biological, engineering and regulatory domains that differed widely in perceived costs, benefits, time to implementation, and risks. In the short term, the highest priority identified was the need to urgently locate and protect sites globally that are, or will become, refugia areas for the coral and its associated community as climate change progresses.