This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Australia's coral reefs are in relatively good condition compared with coral reefs globally, although coral cover on Australian reefs has declined over the past 40 years—reflecting the global trend, a major new report has found. The Status of the World's Coral Reefs: 2025 report, released today by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN), finds that average hard coral cover measured globally in 2020–24 shows a decline of 9.5% from the reference period of 1980–2009.
The report, the seventh by GCRMN, is the largest and most comprehensive assessment of global coral reef health, covering 10 geographic regions. Four of these regions experienced coral cover declines. Climate change-driven heat stress has become an increasingly important driver of coral loss in Australia and across the globe over the past decade.
Manuel Gonzalez Rivero, global coordinator of the GCRMN, said that despite the overall decline, the monitoring data also showed recovery was still possible. "Globally, there was a 6% relative increase in hard coral cover between 2017 and 2019 after the third Global Coral Bleaching Event, showing reefs still have the capacity to at least partially recover. "However, this recovery has been reversed by unprecedented loss from the recent fourth Global Coral Bleaching Event." The report does not include a full assessment of impacts from the fourth Global Coral Bleaching Event, which includes the 2024 and 2025 mass bleaching events in Australian waters that caused significant coral cover declines across the Great Barrier Reef and Western Australian coral reefs.
Gonzalez Rivero said major disturbances previously occurred on coral reefs once every 10 years. Now, with more frequent Global Coral Bleaching Events, they are occurring every five to six years, reducing the time reefs have to recover. "Our modeling suggests that if the current rate of Global Bleaching Events is maintained, the long-term decline of global hard coral cover will continue.
"More ambitious reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions offer a more positive future for reefs, when combined with effective management of local pressures," he said. The report finds that average coral cover on Australian reefs has fallen from 30.2% in the 1980–2009 reference period to 26.8% in 2020–24, a 10.9% relative decline. One of the lead authors of the Australian chapter of the GCRMN report is Dr.
Mike Emslie, who leads AIMS' Long-Term Monitoring Program on the Great Barrier Reef. "The assessment shows that Australia's coral reefs have relatively good coral cover and have largely demonstrated the capacity to recover from disturbances like climate change-driven coral bleaching, cyclones and crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks if given enough time," Emslie said. "But the condition of Australia's coral reefs varies considerably across the country.
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