300 scientists in the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network in a survey has reported that global warming has helped wipe out 14 percent of the world’s coral reefs between 2009 and 2018.
It further warned that more of the vibrant underwater ecosystems were likely to die if oceans warm further.
Corals in South Asia and the Pacific, around the Arabian Peninsula, and off the coast of Australia, were the hardest hit, according to the report which was released on Tuesday, by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.
The report spanned data for 40 years, 73 countries and 12,000 sites and found the total area destroyed equal to about 11,700 square kilometres (4,517 square miles).
“Climate change is the biggest threat to the world’s reefs,” co-author Paul Hardisty, the chief executive of the Australian Institute of Marine Science, said in a statement.
Coral reefs cover only 0.2 percent of the ocean floor, but they are home to at least a quarter of all marine animals and plants.
Besides anchoring marine ecosystems, they also provide food, protection from storms and shoreline erosion and jobs for hundreds of millions of people worldwide.
The study looked at 10 coral reef-bearing regions around the world and found that reef loss was mainly the result of coral bleaching, but also overfishing, unsustainable coastal development and declining water quality.
Oceans absorb more than 90 percent of the excess heat from greenhouse gas emissions and bleaching takes place when corals, under stress from warmer water, expel the colourful algae living in their tissues and turn white, Aljazeera reports.