
The CAO Coral Reef Challenge
Gregory P. Asner, September 2017
Coral reefs are global hotspots of biological diversity and support the livelihoods of more than a billion people worldwide. Coral reefs cover roughly 500,000 km2 of the Earth’s surface, but are sparsely distributed over more than 200 million km2 of ocean (Figure 1). Field studies currently represent less than 0.01% of coral reefs worldwide, and although local monitoring is important, it provides little understanding of the trajectory of coral reefs undergoing regional and global environmental change. Read More