Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Coral Reefs

Everglades National Park is in critical condition due to poor water management, according to the IUCN.

A Third of Natural World Heritage Sites Are in Danger

From the Florida Everglades to Africa’s first national park, many crucial protected areas are in serious trouble

Cool Finds

Sea Coral Makes Excellent Human Bone Grafts

Coral’s porous structure, with some chemical tweaks, is the perfect place for new bone and tissue to grow

New Research

Corals And Fish Can Tell a Bad Reef When They Smell It

New research indicates that young marine species can be picky about where they choose to settle

Finger coral's fatness and indiscretion when it comes to algal partners gives it an edge in warming waters.

New Research

Fat Corals Fare Best As Climate Changes

Corals with significant energy reserves that welcome all types of symbiotic algae species won’t easily die if hit with multiple bleaching events

Many fish and other organisms make their home on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. How will the massive living structure change as climate changes?

New Research

Great Barrier Reef Gets A Little Good News

New research shows that some corals may be able to adapt to faster warming than previously thought

Madison Stewart, Shark Girl

The Girl Who Swims With Sharks

A new Smithsonian Channel documentary features “Shark Girl,” a fearless 20-year-old Aussie who has spent hundreds of hours swimming with the creatures

The Silent Evolution. MUSA Collection, 2010. Depth, 8 m. Manchones Reef, Mexico.

Can Underwater Art Save the Ocean’s Coral Reefs?

Artist Jason deCaires Taylor is creating sculptures to help promote reef growth

New Research

A 20,000-Plus Room Resort Threatens This UNESCO Site in Mexico

For twenty years, conservation efforts have protected the beach and its coral reef; a new development could harm them both

Waves breaking on a coral reef in Hawaii.

New Research

Coral Reefs Absorb 97 Percent of the Energy From Waves Headed Toward Shore

This finding applies to reefs around the world

An experiment with corals taken from the warm waters of the U.S. National Park of American Samoa showed that at least one species can quickly adapt to rising heat.

New Research

This Coral Has Shown It Can Weather Warmer Waters

Corals are not expected to do well with climate change. But the ability to adapt to warmer oceans could give them more time

Coral

Cool Finds

Watch This Hypnotic Time Lapse Video of Coral

Corals are animals, rooted to the ocean floor but capable of some hypnotically beautiful movement, as this time lapse video shows

Cool Finds

Watch Corals Fight Epic, Slow-Motion Wars

The world of corals may move slowly, but it’s still full of danger and violence. We’re just moving too quickly to see it happen.

Nan Madol is located near the southern side of the Federated States of Micronesia. It is the only ancient city ever built atop a coral reef.

Nan Madol: The City Built on Coral Reefs

One of the oldest archaeological sites not on a heritage list, this Pacific state, like Easter Island, is an engineering marvel

Unknown in the Americas 30 years ago, lionfish have multiplied at a rate that is almost unheard of in marine history.

Invasion of the Lionfish

Voracious, venomous lionfish are the first exotic species to invade coral reefs. Now divers, fishermen—and cooks—are fighting back

None

The Miracle of the Reef

Coral spawn only once a year, and at night; how they manage to synchronize remains a mystery

The Great Barrier Reef

Diving Into the Great Barrier Reef

Beautiful beaches and unrivaled underwater views lure lovers of marine life to the world’s largest coral reef

A gray reef shark swims over corals in remote Kingman Reef in the Line Islands. Researchers believe that a large number of sharks is indicative of healthy reefs.

Deep Trouble

Coral reefs are clearly struggling. The only debate for marine scientists is whether the harm is being done on a local or global scale

Lake Champlain's Isle La Motte is rich in marine fossils, some of which are 450 million years old.

Paleozoic Vermont

What’s the world’s oldest communal ocean reef doing in the Green Mountain State?

A Return to the Reefs

With the world’s coral reefs in crisis, the author’s childhood memories guide a far-reaching study of the problem in the Bahamas

None

Rapture of the Deep

Pennekamp State Park—the nation’s first coral-reef santcuary—protects a thriving ecosystem beneath the waves

Page 9 of 9