Increasing reforestation efforts in coastal regions could substantially reduce the amount of sediment run-off reaching coral reefs and improve their resilience, a University of Queensland-led study has found.
The study analysed more than 5,500 coastal areas from around the world and found that nearly 85 per cent of them leached sediment to coral reefs, the second most serious threat facing the world’s reefs behind climate change.
Dr Andrés Suárez-Castro from UQ’s Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science and his team hope that local authorities can use their results to identify areas where reforestation can have the highest benefit on coral reefs.
“Our approach can be adapted with local data to identify optimal actions for preserving ‘win-wins’ for multiple ecosystems spanning the land and sea,” Dr Suárez-Castro said.
“Several global initiatives such as the Paris Climate Agreement are bringing forest restoration to the forefront of global conservation discussions and our hope is that our study can facilitate more informed and educated conversations around the importance of a more integrated land-sea approach.”
The study was led by UQ researchers with contributions from researchers at The University of Pavia in Italy.
The research has been published in Global Change Biology (DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15811).
