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<jats:p>Andrea Dutton's hunt for ancient coral reefs has taken her from white sand beaches along the Indian Ocean to wave-beaten cliffs beside the Caribbean. Last year, Dutton made the trek from her lab at the University of Florida in Gainesville to a Mexican amusement park carved from the seaside jungle of the Yucatán Peninsula to sample the rocks that the park's builders had cut and exposed: the remains of coral reefs more than 100,000 years old. Dutton seeks out ancient reefs to understand what's in store for Earth's coastlines. She's one of a small cadre of scientists scouring the planet for evidence of how high the oceans rose when polar ice melted during previous global warming spells.</jats:p>

<jats:p>When Hurricane Irene hit North Carolina's coast in 2011, waves 2 meters high began pounding the shore. Two properties on Pine Knoll Shores, a community on one of the state's many barrier islands, provided a study in contrasts. One homeowner had installed a concrete bulkhead to protect his yard from the sea. But the churning waves overtopped and ultimately toppled the wall, washing away tons of sediment and leaving a denuded mud flat. Less than 200 meters away, another owner had installed a "living shoreline"—a planted carpet of marsh grass that gently sloped into the water, held in place by a rock sill placed a few meters offshore. The onrushing water bent the marsh grasses almost flat, but their flexing stalks dampened the waves and their deep roots held the soil. After the hurricane passed, the grasses sprang back; the property weathered the storm largely intact. The contrast highlights how defenses inspired by nature, rather than concrete armor, can protect coastlines from battering storms.</jats:p>

<jats:p>In the early 2000s, trawler crews working the Celtic Sea off Ireland noticed something unusual. Small, spiny, bright orange fish, called boarfish, began appearing in their nets in huge numbers. Previously, the intruders had been a minor nuisance; their sharp spines jammed equipment and damaged the soft flesh of more valuable species, such as cod and hake. Irritated crews tossed them overboard. As boarfish schools grew, however, the problem became an opportunity. Trawlers retooled to target the fish, which were turned into meal and oil. Boarfish went from trash to treasure, and they now generate more than $10 million annually for Irish fleets. Scientists aren't exactly sure what is causing the boarfish boom, but there is evidence that a warming ocean is playing a role.</jats:p>

<jats:p>The most recent comprehensive assessment carried out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded that “Human influence on the climate system is clear,” a headline statement that was approved by all governments in consensus. This influence will have long-lasting consequences for ecosystems, and the resulting impacts will continue to be felt millennia from now. Although the terrestrial impacts of climate change are readily apparent now and have received widespread public attention, the effects of climate change on the oceans have been relatively invisible. However, the world ocean provides a number of crucial services that are of global significance, all of which come with an increasing price caused by human activities. This needs to be taken into account when considering adaptation to and mitigation of anthropogenic climate change.</jats:p>

<jats:p>The deep ocean absorbs vast amounts of heat and carbon dioxide, providing a critical buffer to climate change but exposing vulnerable ecosystems to combined stresses of warming, ocean acidification, deoxygenation, and altered food inputs. Resulting changes may threaten biodiversity and compromise key ocean services that maintain a healthy planet and human livelihoods. There exist large gaps in understanding of the physical and ecological feedbacks that will occur. Explicit recognition of deep-ocean climate mitigation and inclusion in adaptation planning by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) could help to expand deep-ocean research and observation and to protect the integrity and functions of deep-ocean ecosystems.</jats:p>

<jats:p>Coral reefs are highly dynamic ecosystems that are regularly exposed to natural perturbations. Human activities have increased the range, intensity, and frequency of disturbance to reefs. Threats such as overfishing and pollution are being compounded by climate change, notably warming and ocean acidification. Elevated temperatures are driving increasingly frequent bleaching events that can lead to the loss of both coral cover and reef structural complexity. There remains considerable variability in the distribution of threats and in the ability of reefs to survive or recover from such disturbances. Without significant emissions reductions, however, the future of coral reefs is increasingly bleak.</jats:p>