{"id":373627,"date":"2025-04-04T17:26:32","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T15:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=373627"},"modified":"2025-04-04T17:26:34","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T15:26:34","slug":"new-study-corals-thrived-when-global-sea-levels-were-meters-higher-than-today-6000-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=373627","title":{"rendered":"New Study: Corals Thrived When Global Sea Levels Were Meters Higher Than Today 6000 Years Ago"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From NoTrickZone<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Kenneth Richard<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Coral reefs expand and thrive as sea levels rise, whereas they undergo millennia of growth hiatuses and \u201cturn-off\u201d or \u201cmass mortality\u201d phases when sea levels fall.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

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According to a new global sea level reconstruction (Feldman et al., 2025<\/a><\/strong>), global sea levels were meters higher than today 7000 to 5000 years ago. Global sea levels fell thereafter throughout the late Holocene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From approximately 4500 years ago until 640 years ago, previously thriving coral reefs endured \u201cmass mortality\u201d and \u201cturn-off\u201d phases due to incrementally declining accommodation space in the Red Sea region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This millennial-scale \u201cturn-off\u201d reef growth period was not just limited to this study area, but coral cover decline has been a global phenomenon associated with global sea level fall throughout the late Holocene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA global hiatus in coral reef development [\u2026] was largely driven by eustatic sea level drop during the late Holocene and caused a lack of vertical accommodation space\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn this study, we propose not just a local sea level condition causing specific reef turn-offs or hiatuses, but rather a global phenomenon of sea level fall.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA reduction in accommodation space through receding sea levels resulted in mass mortality or sea level constrained corals.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considering rising sea levels are advantageous to corals and falling sea levels largely eliminate the potential for growth, future sea level rise may lead to a \u201csignificant increase in coral cover\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFuture sea level rise could provide additional accommodation space for currently sea level-constrained reef systems, potentially leading to a significant increase in coral cover.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Image Source:\u00a0Feldman et al., 2025<\/a><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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