Coral reef loss at unprecedented levels

Pacific coral reefs are dying at an unprecedented rate, scientists have found. Almost 600 square miles of reef have disappeared every year since the late 1960s - twice the rate of rainforest loss.

Coral loss had become a global phenomenon caused mainly by climate change, rising sea temperatures and man-made nutrient pollution.

The study's lead author, John Bruno, said: "We have already lost half of the world's reef-building corals."

The results of the study in the central and western Pacific are published in the open-access journal PLoS ONE. It provides the first regional-scale and long-term analysis of coral loss in the region where relatively little was known about patterns of reef loss.

The Indo-Pacific contains 75 per cent of the world's coral reefs and has the highest coral diversity in the world. High coral cover reefs in the Indo-Pacific ocean were common until a few decades ago, researchers found.
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