Reefs may “unglue” in high carbon-dioxide oceans

"Cements that bind individual coral skeletons and larger coral reefstructures are predominantly absent in waters with naturally highlevels of carbon dioxide (CO₂), making these reefs  highly susceptible to a wearing down of their physical framework, say  scientists with NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in  Miami, Fla. and other institutions.

The study, released in the July 28 issue of  the Proceedings of the National Academy  of Sciences,found that the coral reefs of the eastern tropical Pacific provide areal-world example of the challenges all coral reefs will face underhigh-CO₂ conditions resulting in ocean acidification.

Thisis the first attempt to characterize the impacts of ocean acidificationon coral reef ecosystems by examining naturally occurring, high-CO₂ reef environments. . . ."

The rest of the article is available on the NOAA website.