Coral Reefs and Global Change: Adaptation, Acclimation, or Extinction?

Abstract

The symposium was organized to provide review and input by the scientific community to the products of Working Group 104 of the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR), co-sponsored by the Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ) – a core project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), and with the support of the NOAA Coastal Ocean Program. This working group has been addressing the issue ‘Coral reefs and global change: the role of adaptation’ since 1994. Total meeting attendance was approximately 1200, with participants in the coral reef invited and contributed paper sessions numbering in the hundreds. A majority of the registrants was from North America, but the symposium drew both speakers and attendees from Europe, the Western Pacific, the Caribbean region and the Middle East.