Lauren Toth - Coral Restoration

The complex, three-dimensional reefs built by corals over hundreds to thousands of years provide invaluable ecosystem services to society—contributing billions of dollars per year to the global economy through shoreline protection, tourism, and habitat for biodiversity and fisheries.

The growth of these reefs is increasingly threatened by climate change and other disturbances, which have caused global-scale reductions in reef growth and increases in reef erosion.

Despite unprecedented declines in reef-building corals in recent decades, new research by Dr. Lauren Toth and colleagues shows that real-world coral restoration efforts could bring coral reef growth back to historic levels—as high as they were 7,000 years ago.

Listen to audio-described version.