Lorenzo Alvarez-Filip

Can coral recruitment lead the way to recovery after a devastating disease outbreak in the Caribbean?

Please also check out our blog post on our findings here: go.nature.com/4hNnsNi! 🌊

While these signs of recruitment are encouraging, they are not uniformly distributed among all species. Notably, some of the most severely affected corals—such as Dendrogyra cylindrus (pillar coral) and Meandrina meandrites (maze coral)—are showing limited signs of recovery.

This, in part, suggests that some species retained the capacity to reproduce sexually despite their reduced numbers. Coral recruitment driven by surviving adults capable of reproducing could potentially support the gradual rebuilding of coral populations under favourable conditions.

👶🪸 Can Caribbean corals recover naturally after the devastating effects of SCTLD? - Our new study in @commsearth.nature.com reveals that corals in their early life stages—either survived the outbreak or recruited afterwards—offering a positive sign of resilience at regional scales rdcu.be/eUJBc

Keystone coral species population collapse after unprecedented heat stress Climate change threatens coral reefs globally. Birkart and Alvarez-Filip document local extirpation of a keystone coral species in Mexico following unprecedented heat stress, suggesting similar outcomes for ∼70% of the Greater Caribbean’s shallow-water reefs. This highlights the need to upscale surveys using emerging technologies to locate, protect, and propagate surviving corals.

Online now: Keystone coral species population collapse after unprecedented heat stress

The 2023 marine heatwave was devastating for Caribbean reefs; in this study, we report full mortality of over 5,000 Acropora palmata colonies across a reef scale. What is worrisome is that nearly 70% of reef crests across the Caribbean faced equal or higher levels of stress doi.org/10.1016/j.is...

A beautifully written story about parrotfishes and coral reefs by @lisasgardiner.bsky.social

Reduced Atlantic reef growth past 2 °C warming amplifies sea-level impacts - Nature An analysis of coral reefs in the tropical western Atlantic suggests that nearly all will be eroding by 2100 if global warming exceeds 2 °C, which will worsen the effects of sea-level rise.

Nature research paper: Reduced Atlantic reef growth past 2 °C warming amplifies sea-level impacts

go.nature.com/3VjkuWL

Caribbean coral reefs are running out of time to keep up with rising seas – new study Coral reefs will stop growing and many will start to erode if global warming hits 2°C, according to a new study of 400 sites.

Coral reefs will stop growing and many will start to erode if global warming hits 2°C, according to a new study of 400 sites.

This is figure 2, which shows reef accretion potential across western Atlantic reefs.

Over 70% of coral reefs in the tropical western Atlantic Ocean are projected to be in a state of erosion by 2040, increasing to nearly all reefs in 2100 if warming exceeds 2 °C above preindustrial levels, a study in Nature suggests. go.nature.com/48m9Y8F 🌊 🧪

Dispersal Ability Reduces Thermal Specialization and Prevents Climate‐Driven Extinctions in a Neotropical Rainforest

buff.ly/nNuQFG7

Governing novel climate interventions in rapidly changing oceans Marine systems are rapidly changing in response to global heating. The scale and intensity of change are triggering a host of novel interventions to sustain oceans and ocean-dependent societies. Howev...

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Published today in Science:

“The pace of new interventions is outstripping the capacity to prevent unintended consequences - because governance systems are not yet in place.”

Stop the cowboys before they do even more damage!

Across warming seas, record-breaking marine heatwaves in 2023 underscored the growing vulnerability of ecosystems and human livelihoods. These events contributed to fishery losses and revealed region-specific drivers, including enhanced shortwave radiation, oceanic advection, and changes in upper-ocean stratification. Together, these mechanisms illustrate the intensifying influence of climate variability on ocean heat extremes.

The global marine heatwaves of 2023 were unprecedented in their intensity, persistence, and scale, according to a new Science study.

The findings provide insights into the region-specific drivers of these events, linking them to broader changes in the planet’s climate system. scim.ag/4lOzfwm

Heard of "Darwin's paradox"? It refers to Charles Darwin's observation that coral reefs are wildly productive despite occurring in nutrient-poor tropical oceans. Reefs are, so the story goes, oases in marine deserts 🏝️...

Turns out that 2/3 of these assertions are very wrong...

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Idea of Coral Reefs as Oases in Marine Deserts May Be Mistaken New research from Simon Brandl at The University of Texas at Austin challenges a long-held belief about coral reefs.

New research challenges the long-held belief that coral reefs are “oases” in marine deserts. While among the world’s most productive ecosystems, their existence in nutrient-deprived oceans is the exception rather than the rule. @gobyone.bsky.social @utmsi.bsky.social
cns.utexas.edu/news/researc...

In all of them, we found that strategically conducting restoration activities near or bordering existing patches of the target species can enhance the structural connectivity of the landscape, while also increasing the potential for fertilization between the wild population and outplanted specimens.

Our models show that considering the spatial distribution of the focal species is crucial in restoration activities. We tested our models under three different reef scenarios (degraded, healthy, and randomly distributed).

Specifically, we propose a framework that integrates image analysis of commercial drone data and spatial modelling based on landscape ecology theory to identify restoration sites that structurally connect patches of a key reef-building coral across ecologically meaningful scales.

Enhancing structural connectivity through coral restoration by adopting a landscape ecology perspective - Landscape Ecology Context Restoration is an effective measure to counteract declines of reef-building coral populations. Despite decades of coral restoration research and practice, very little emphasis has been placed ...

Coral restoration is a rapidly growing field; however, the scalability of interventions is often a limitation to reverse coral losses at meaningful scales. We address this issue by proposing a spatially explicit approximation to optimize the outplanting design at the reefscape scale bit.ly/4kiVxoH

Sir David Attenborough Ocean film 'greatest message he's told' Sir David says his new film Ocean is one of the most important of his career.

BBC News - Attenborough at 99 delivers 'greatest message he's ever told'
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Call for Session Proposals

1/6 Call for session proposals

16th International Coral Reef Symposium, 19–24th July 2026, Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand.
Session proposal deadline: Sunday 15th June 2025.
Details and submission link at www.icrs2026.nz/call-for-ses...

Tracing the worst coral bleaching event in recorded history – video Two years into the worst coral bleaching event on record, more than 80% of the planet's reefs have been affected

According to data from Coral Reef Watch, the worst global bleaching event on record has now hit more than 80% of the planet’s reefs, prompting scientists to warn that we are in “uncharted territory.”

Read more from @readfearn.bsky.social in @theguardian.com:

www.theguardian.com/environment/... 🌍🧪

84% of the world’s reefs recently experienced bleaching-level heat stress, but not all were ‘completely bleached' - Science Feedback 84% of Earth's reefs experienced bleaching-level heat stress, but not all were completely bleached. Mass bleaching was reported in 82 different countries and territories, but it will be years until sc...

Science Feedback provides valuable context behind the headline.

science.feedback.org/review/84-of...

We need more contextualizing of clickbait stories.

Often, as in this case, there is an important, albeit nuanced, story not easily summarized in a catchy headline.

@sciencefeedback.bsky.social

More than 80% of the world’s reefs hit by bleaching after worst global event on record An ashen pallor and an eerie stillness all that remains where there should fluttering fish and vibrant colours in the reefscape, one conservationist says

More than 80% of the world’s reefs hit by bleaching after worst global event on record #Climate

Coral restoration projects failing: One-third ineffective and unlikely to scale, study finds As coral bleaching and deaths become more widespread globally, experts are re-evaluating the benefits of restoration missions to reverse damage and protect some of the world's most species-rich ecosys...

“Major barriers include the small scale of restoration programs, high costs per hectare, and the …. vulnerability (of corals) to future heat stresses. phys.org/news/2025-04...

More than 80% of the world’s reefs hit by bleaching after worst global event on record An ashen pallor and an eerie stillness all that remains where there should fluttering fish and vibrant colours in the reefscape, one conservationist says

If we continue burning fossil fuels and warming the ocean, coral reefs will become a thing of the past.

More than 80% of the world’s reefs hit by bleaching after worst global event on record An ashen pallor and an eerie stillness all that remains where there should be fluttering fish and vibrant colours in the reefscape, one conservationist says

"The fact that so many reef areas have been impacted ... suggests that ocean warming has reached a level where there is no longer any safe harbour." 🪸💔

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Update on Trump’s savage anti-science agenda:

“The White House is ready to ask Congress to eliminate NOAA’s climate research centers and cut hundreds of federal and academic climate scientists who track and study human-driven global warming.”

www.science.org/content/arti...

The hurricane impacts we report in this study occurred in 2020. Many may wonder whether Limones Reef withstood the 2023 bleaching event. The good news is that, unlike many other shallow reefs in the Caribbean, this reef still has a healthy population of A. palmata (although it underwent losses).