Conceptual diagram of history of coral reef development

Conceptual diagram of the history of coral-reef development in the Florida Keys. The graph shows average (black line; shaded area indicates ±95% confidence intervals) reef accretion across all sites in the Florida Keys. Reef accretion began to decline as climate cooled following the Holocene Thermal Maximum. By 3000 years ago, reef accretion was negligible throughout the region, making the Florida Keys reef tract geologically senescent. Recently, anthropogenic warming and other disturbances have caused declines in coral cover and have pushed Florida’s reefs into a state of net erosion.