Coral reefs are hotspots of biodiversity, but are under threat from ocean pollution and acidification, as well as human activities such as fishing and tourism. This book provides a global environmental history of coral reefs, which will provide greater understanding of environmental change and management of coral reefs over time. It describes the range of impacts of human activities in different coral reef systems, highlighting the timings and trajectories of change in various regions.

It also examines the implications of the main environmental changes in coral reefs over the historical period for adjacent environments, societies and economies. The author then sets out the implications of an environmental history of coral reefs for notions of resilience, vulnerability and phase shifts in relation to these ecosystems. The scope of the book is global, although with a focus in particular on those coral reefs for which extensive literature exists and which represent environments and habitats of international significance, such as the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, the coral reefs of the Caribbean and Red Seas, and some of the reefs of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.