Drivers and consequences of degradation in tropical reef island ecosystems: strategies for restoration and conservation

Abstract

Rising sea levels are threatening the Reef Islands, which have restricted areas that too just a few meters above sea level, besides the global and local anthropogenic strains including devastative methods used for fishing and pollution that impact the majority of the tropical coastal areas as well as the encircling reef ecosystems that are the only sediment sources required for sustenance of these islands. The carbonate skeletal of the sediments is potentially changed due to these strains jeopardizing the physical existence of reef islands through enhanced coral mortality and producing a shift of macro algal supremacy over the corals. Further decline of these vital ecosystems can be stopped by addressing the primary causes of the destructing, enforcing the potential therapeutic and conservative measures, and promoting the stakeholder’s cooperation.