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<title>Science, 15 August 2003: Declining Coral Reefs</title>
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<img src="http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/hottopics/images/Reef_header.jpg" width="300" height="34" border="0" alt="Declining Coral Reefs">
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This issue of <I>Science</I> offers a look at several sides of a compelling environmental story: The ongoing decline of worldwide coral reef ecosystems -- largely owing to human impacts such as global climate change. A review by <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/301/5635/929">Hughes <I>et al.</I></a> examines the overall scale of the human threat on global reefs, and highlights the need for a strong policy response. And three research reports document various aspects of the reef decline, ranging from the escalating threat posed to reefs by the environmental effects of tropical wildfires (<a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/301/5635/952">Abram <I>et al.</I></a>) to the long-term regional declines of corals in the Caribbean (<a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/301/5635/958">Gardner <I>et al.</I></a>) to the broad trajectory of worldwide coral reef decline over the past several centuries, due not only to climate change but to other factors such as land pollution and overfishing (<a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/301/5635/955">Pandolfi <I>et al.</I></a>).
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<img src="http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/hottopics/images/covtoc.gif" alt="Coral Reefs">
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<b><a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/301/5635/929">Review: Climate Change, Human Impacts, and the Resilience of Coral Reefs</a></b><br>
Hughes <I>et al.</I><br>
<i>Science</i> <b>301</b>, 929 (2003)<br>
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<b><a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/301/5635/952">Report: Coral Reef Death During the 1997 Indian Ocean Dipole Linked to Indonesian Wildfires</a></b><br>
Abram <I>et al.</I><br>
<i>Science</i> <b>301</b>, 952 (2003)<br>
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<b><a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/301/5635/958">Report: Long-Term Region-Wide Declines in Caribbean Corals</a></b><br>
Gardner <I>et al.</I><br>
<i>Science</i> <b>301</b>, 958 (2003)<br>
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<b><a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/301/5635/955">Report: Global Trajectories of the Long-Term Decline of Coral Reef Ecosystems</a></b><br>
Pandolfi <I>et al.</I><br>
<i>Science</i> <b>301</b>, 955 (2003)<br>
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