SBU Researchers Seek Global Solutions to Conserve Coral Reefs

Coral reefs, the "rainforests of the sea," face immense pressures from climate change as well as destructive fishing, harmful tourism, coastal development, unsustainable land use, oil spills and other threats that often require regional solutions that span national borders. Addressing these threats is also key to ensuring that coral reefs are as resilient as possible against the accelerating impacts from climate change.

Faculty members at Stony Brook University's School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) have joined with a worldwide, multidisciplinary cohort of coral experts to publish findings that demonstrate that there is reason for hope.

Coral reefs provide habitats for 25% of all marine life. Critical to global biodiversity, they are essential for food supply, culture and recreation and coastal protection from hurricanes for communities around the world and even contain a vast array of bioactive chemical compounds that could be critical to medical advances. But half of the world's coral reefs have been lost in the last 50 years and scientists fear that warming seas from climate change will decimate 70-90% of what remains by the end of this century.

While climate change is the greatest single threat to coral reefs worldwide and reducing greenhouse gas emissions is critical for their wellbeing, this alone will not ensure their survival.

"Coral reefs are often discussed as victims of climate change, but our findings show they are also systems with real capacity for resilience if we address other pressures we can control with more local action," said Karine Kleinhaus, senior author of the study and research associate professor at SoMAS. "Climate action remains essential, but it must be paired with coordinated regional solutions that reduce local stressors and strengthen reef systems where they still have the ability to persist."

The research highlights that some coral reefs, such as those in the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea, have demonstrated remarkable resilience to extreme heat, but face other more local threats such as pollution and coastal development that undermine their resilience. By addressing these types of more local or regional threats elsewhere, the authors argue, reefs around the world can be given a meaningful chance to resist or adapt to warming seas driven by climate change. To that end, the research team assessed and identified potential pathways to strengthen coral reef resilience, with a focus on regional solutions that can help support coral reef resilience and address the many threats to coral reefs that transcend international boundaries.

The work emphasized the Red Sea and Caribbean Sea as two contrasting regions from which to compare approaches. By drawing experts from universities, governance institutions, and NGOs from six different countries to Stony Brook University for a workshop, the research team outlined pathways for strengthening resilience in these two parts of the world using a "systems mapping approach" that considered environmental, social, economic and political factors simultaneously. In addition to making recommendations for the Caribbean and the Red Sea, the group also identified six levers for coral reef conservation globally, then adapted these pathways into a cohesive, interlinked framework that serves as an actionable roadmap that engages global, regional and local players to be enacted alongside ongoing efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The six levers included:

• Conservation finance: A lack of financial resources remains one of the most stubborn barriers to ocean conservation worldwide
• Global knowledge management: Knowledge resources, ranging from global scientific expertise to local indigenous knowledge, can be pooled and shared at the global level to share lessons learned from around the globe.
• Regional political coordination: Countries need to work together to drive regional solutions forward, funneling knowledge from local to global levels, and coordinating the dissemination of global resources for more local implementation.
• Area-based conservation: Effective Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) can mitigate threats like overfishing, habitat destruction, pollution and other threats undermining coral reef resilience and the need for regional networks of MPAs is becoming clearer.
• Ecosystem restoration: An emerging area of conservation that has the potential to support other efforts like area-based management while teaching us about the mechanisms behind what makes coral reefs resilient to climate change.
• Strengthening stakeholder capacity and engagement: Actions to enable or empower local actors to lead or contribute to conservation efforts, including through education, peer-to-peer learning, access to funding and tools and other forms of support.

"Amid global geopolitical headwinds for climate action, 2025 was nonetheless a remarkable year for momentum around ocean health," said lead author John Bohorquez, adjunct assistant professor at SoMAS and founding director of the Blue Economy Solutions Lab. "Publishing this research in npj Ocean Sustainability came at a pivotal moment for coral reefs - not as an endpoint, but as a bridge to the urgent work ahead in 2026. Coral reefs do not stop at political boundaries and neither can the solutions to save them. Protecting these ecosystems requires transboundary collaboration that connects science, policy and on-the-ground action. Only by working across borders, disciplines and levels of government can we strengthen reef resilience and safeguard the communities that depend on them."

By situating long-recognized principles within the context of the latest science and current international policy environment, the Stony Brook-led cohort proposes how efforts can be advanced through concrete strategies that address today's challenges. Additionally, addressing the global coral reef crisis requires diverse, multidisciplinary teams that reflect the regions and communities affected. These findings came from authors from various disciplines, institutions and geographies, integrating their regional knowledge, perspectives and expertise into the analysis and recommendations to support coral reefs around the globe.

While coral reefs are in a state of emergency, coordinating global leadership with regional and local action can move closer to the outcomes the coral reef conservation community has long aspired to achieve.

This initiative received funding from the National Science Foundation.