But scientists are having a hard time illustrating these problems as shifting baselines continue to redefine what is considered normal for reef health.
Australian scientists now report that coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef has fallen sharply in all three sections of the reef for the first time in 35 years of continuous monitoring.
A new study finds coral reefs are sounding less like suitable homes to baby fish.
Heat-tolerant genes may spread through coral populations fast enough to give the marine creatures a tool to survive another 100 years of warming in our oceans.
The technique involves planting fragments of nursery-raised coral on reefs in the wild to replenish depleted colonies.
Thirty percent of the coral system was wiped out by warming waters in 2016; another 20 percent died off this year.
Climate change is set to erode the reef at a record pace. What used to take centuries is now happening in less than a generation.
Hatching rates on a remote island on the Great Barrier Reef are alarmingly low. Rising seas are flooding sea turtle nests on the island, but researchers are finding that's not the whole story.
Such predictions could help fisheries prepare for the future.
Protecting the fish that graze among coral reefs could be one way to save ourselves from rising seas.