"Corals make up the very framework of the coral reef ecosystem," said Aeby, one of 38 scientists who collaborated on the study. If they disappear, she said, "we can expect to lose the fish and crabs and other critters that depend on these corals."
Loss of coral reefs could have a profound effect on more than 500 million impoverished fishermen in the tropics who rely on them to feed themselves and their families, said David Obura, a marine biologist and East Africa coordinator for the Coastal Oceans Research and Development-Indian Ocean.
"People rely on coral reefs every day," said Obura, another coauthor. "In places like the Indian Ocean, we need to work with fishermen and help people decide not to fish in a destructive way."
The decline of reef-building corals can be blamed primarily on the loss of the two major branching corals in the Caribbean in recent decades.
William F. Precht, manager of damage assessment and restoration for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, said that 95% to 98% of the elkhorn and staghorn corals in the Keys and elsewhere in the region had been lost to disease, toppled by hurricanes or crowded out by thick mats of algae and bacteria.
Both are listed as threatened with extinction under the Endangered Species Act.
But it is the rich diversity of corals in the tropical waters of the West Pacific, a place called the Coral Triangle that includes Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, that presents the potential greatest loss of species.
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ken.weiss@latimes.com
