The first IUCN Red List of cold-water corals highlights global declines

作者：Julia D. Sigwart, A. Louise Allcock, Renata Carolina Mikosz Arantes, Kelsey Archer Barnhill, Narissa Bax, Julia S. Beneti, Saskia Brix, Gudmundur Gudmundsson, Catherine S. McFadden, Severin A. Korfhage, Christi Linardich, Declan Morrissey, Pedro de Oliveira Nascimento, Bárbara de Moura Neves, Steinunn H. Ólafsdóttir, Stefán Á. Ragnarsson, Kaveh Samimi‐Namin, Íris Sampaio, Mark E. de Wilt · 发表于：Marine Biodiversity · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1007/s12526-025-01533-0 · 被引用次数：4 · 研究领域：Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies、Marine and fisheries research、Marine and coastal plant biology

Abstract The most well-known species-based conservation tool is the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. The current coverage of species in the Red List is known to under-represent benthic marine species. Cold-water corals (CWCs) are increasingly recognised as key to deep-water biodiversity and integral to protected vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs), but no deep-sea coral species were previously included in the Red List. We selected 22 cold-water coral species in the Northeast Atlantic, including 4 reef-forming stony corals and 18 octocorals including sea pens and gorgonians, and completed the first IUCN Red List global assessments for corals inhabiting the deep sea. Most of the species assessed herein are habitat-forming, including those that form coral reefs and marine animal forests such as coral gardens or sea pen fields. We assessed eight species as near threatened, and one species as globally vulnerable: Desmophyllum pertusum. Some of these species are distributed across an entire ocean basin, but the cumulative damage from human impacts have reduced populations by upwards of 30% from recent baselines . In addition, three species are listed as data deficient, and the remaining 10 species are assessed as least concern. All assessments in threatened categories were made using Red List criterion A, based on evidence of past population declines, and the main threats in most cases are related to bottom-contact fishing. W...