Coral Reef Resilience in a Warming Ocean
A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818). This special issue belongs to the section "Marine Diversity".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2026 | Viewed by 24
Special Issue Editor
Interests: hard coral taxonomy; coral identification; local coral identification guides; teaching coral ID; diversity; surveying and monitoring coral species; coral species biogeography; coral reef monitoring; coral reef ecology; coral reef fisheries; coral reef conservation; marine protected areas; extinction
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Coral reefs, though a tiny fraction of global ecosystems, support disproportionately high biodiversity, rivalling tropical rainforests, and deliver vital ecosystem services. Yet they face an acute crisis: local/regional human impacts, climate change-driven coral bleaching (resulting from warming oceans breaking the symbiosis with zooxanthellae), and ocean acidification (hindering calcification in corals and marine organisms) threaten their near extinction in decades.
Despite decades of research, critical gaps persist. Coral diversity is likely underestimated, as modern DNA sequencing conflicts with traditional morphology-based species identification, an issue crucial to ecology, monitoring, and conservation. Habitats such as reef flats and mesophotic zones remain understudied, and biogeographic pattern comparisons across reef organisms (e.g., fishes, molluscs, and crustaceans) are underexplored.
This Special Issue aims to address these gaps. It focuses on coral reef conservation under climate change, invites work advancing knowledge on the diversity and biogeography of reef-building corals, explores linkages between biogeography, ecology, conservation, and human impacts, and encourages cross-organism comparisons to inform resilience-focused solutions.
Dr. Douglas Fenner
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diversity is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- coral reefs
- warming ocean
- biodiversity
- conservation
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
