Lorenzo Alvarez-Filip

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).

One of our key findings relates to the role of phenotypic plasticity. Colonies in the most exposed environments (reef crest) developed morphological attributes that made them, and their patches, more prone to resisting the increased energy levels during hurricanes.

🌊🌊🪸🪸 Ever wonder how a hurricane modifies the landscape structure of a coral reef? In this newly published study, we use high-resolution drone imagery to explore how the impact of disturbances modulates the spatial arrangement and distribution of Acropora palmate patches.

doi.org/10.1007/s003...

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…

SOBERING NEWS!!! Coral restoration projects failing: One-third ineffective and unlikely to scale, study finds

phys.org/news/2025-04...

#coralreefs #coralreefresearch #coralrestoration #reefrestoration #coral #conservation #coralgardening #habitatrestoration #climatechange #marinebiology

Reality check: coral restoration won’t save the world’s reefs A coral ‘rope’ nursery in the Maldives. Luca Saponari/University of Milan, CC BY-ND Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Flinders University; Clelia Mulà, The University of Western Australia, and Giovanni Strona, University of Helsinki Coral reefs are much more than just a pretty place to visit. They are among the world’s richest ecosystems, hosting about a third of all marine species…

Reality check: coral restoration won’t save the world’s reefs

A coral ‘rope’ nursery in the Maldives. Luca Saponari/University of Milan, CC BY-ND Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Flinders University; Clelia Mulà, The University of Western Australia, and Giovanni Strona, University of Helsinki Coral reefs are…

Trump Administration Has Begun a War on Science, Researchers Say Nearly 2,000 scientists urged that Congress restore funding to federal agencies decimated by recent cuts.

Some 1,900 leading researchers accused the Trump administration in an open letter on Monday of conducting a “wholesale assault on U.S. science” that could set back research by decades and that threatens the health and safety of Americans.

“If those who speak Spanish as their second language are included, then the U.S. is the second-largest Spanish-speaking country in the world after Mexico.”

By ending Spanish-language communications, the White House ignores U.S. demographics: buff.ly/pTDH2iR

In this news story, we discuss the need to rethink the role parrotfish play as a tool for reef conservation and management ......🐟 🪸 🪸 🐟

Our last article on Vulnerability of benthic trait diversity across the Mediterranean Sea following mass mortality events is out in
@NatureComms
! 🪸🌱🐚🌡️🌊 A thread 👇🧵

nature.com/articles/s41...

Black and white cartoon in four panels. In each panel there is a man sitting on a chair, and a little bird on the ground (always facing the man). Top left: a man looking very anguished reads a newspaper saying WAR, PAIN, DOOM, CRIME; has not seen the bird. Top right: the man notices the bird. Bottom left: the man has started to drop the newspaper and started to smile at the bird. Bottom right: the newspaper is gone, the man looks happy, man is fully focused on the bird. Cartoon signed "Leunig".

So grateful that we share the Planet with other species 🌍

One of the few remaining elkhorn corals in the Caribbean is standing the wave energy... 🌊🪸

Emergent patterns of reef fish diversity correlate with coral assemblage shifts along the Great Barrier Reef - Nature Communications Coral reefs have been severely affected by anthropogenic stress. Using long term data from the Great Barrier Reef, this study found temporal changes in the latitudinal diversity gradient, and stronger...

Great Barrier Reef fish reveal that large-scale macroecological patterns have changed significantly 🐟🐠

We found that changes in latitudinal diversity gradient & rising species turnover were strongly correlated with shifts in coral composition

Out now in Nature Comms www.nature.com/articles/s41...