A key coral species that has helped build Florida's reefs for the last 10,000 years has been wiped out in the region, researchers say. Acropora corals, which include the well-known staghorn and elkhorn varieties, have now been declared functionally extinct in Florida's Coral Reef following a historic ocean heat wave in 2023, per USA Today. A new study, published Thursday in Science, tracked more than 52,000 wild and restored Acropora colonies across the reef's 350 miles and found that by March 2024, nearly all had perished as a result of the unprecedented thermal stress.
The 2023 heat wave saw ocean temperatures in the region hit a record 90.1 degrees in July, with the event ultimately killing between 97.8% and 100% of the Acropora populations in the Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas. Other coral species weathered the heat wave better, but the loss of reef-building Acropora represents "a devastating blow to the ecosystem and all of the goods and services that depend on it," says Ross Cunning, a research biologist at Shedd Aquarium and co–lead author of the study. "The numbers of individuals of these species that remain are now so low that they cannot perform their ecological functions in any meaningful way," he adds, per NBC News.
Overall, it's estimated that almost 90% of Florida's corals have been lost. Scientists say the collapse of Acropora—following the functional extinction of the Florida's rare pillar coral in 2020, per NBC—is a warning of what's in store for reefs globally as ocean heat waves become more frequent and severe due to climate change. "Without immediate, ambitious actions to slow ocean warming and boost coral resilience, we risk the extinction of even more corals from reefs in Florida and around the world," Cunning says, per USA Today.
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