Coral reef diversity losses in China's Greater Bay Area were driven by regional stressors.

Observations of coral reef losses to climate change far exceed our understanding of historical degradation before anthropogenic warming. This is a critical gap to fill as conservation efforts simultaneously work to reverse climate change while restoring coral reef diversity and function. Here, we focused on southern China's Greater Bay Area, where coral communities persist despite centuries of coral mining, fishing, dredging, development, and pollution.

Benthic Foraminifera from the Capricorn Group, Great Barrier Reef, Australia.

Effective reef management and monitoring has become increasingly important as anthropogenic processes impact upon natural ecosystems. One locality that is under direct threat due to human activities is the Australian Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Marine foraminifera represent an abundant and readily applicable tool that can be used in reef studies to investigate a variety of ecological parameters and assist in understanding reef dynamics and influence management protocols.

Effects of cyclone-generated disturbance on a tropical reef foraminifera assemblage.

The sedimentary record, and associated micropalaeontological proxies, is one tool that has been employed to quantify a region's tropical cyclone history. Doing so has largely relied on the identification of allochthonous deposits (sediments and microfossils), sourced from deeper water and entrained by tropical cyclone waves and currents, in a shallow-water or terrestrial setting. In this study, we examine microfossil assemblages before and after a known tropical cyclone event (Cyclone Hamish) with the aim to better resolve the characteristics of this known signal.