Editing IPCC:AR6/SROCC/Chapter-6 (section)

=== 6.8.3 Cascading Impacts on Ecosystems ===

<div id="section-6-8-3cascading-impacts-on-ecosystems-block-1"></div>

Damage and loss of ecosystems (mangrove, coral reefs, polar deserts, wetlands and salt marshes); or regime shifts in ecosystem communities lead to reduced resilience of all the ecosystems and possible flow-on effects to human systems. For example, recent studies showed that living corals and reef structures have experienced significant losses from human-related drivers such as coastal development; sand and coral mining; overfishing, acidification, and climate-related storms and bleaching events (Smith, 2011; Nielsen et al., 2012; Hilmi et al., 2013; Graham et al., 2015; Lenoir and Svenning, 2015; Hughes et al., 2017b). As a consequence, reef flattening is taking place globally due the loss of corals and from the bio-erosion and dissolution of the underlying reef carbonate structures (Alvarez-Filip et al., 2009). Reef mortality and flattening due to non-climate and climate-related drivers trigger cascading impacts and risks due to the loss of the protection services provided to coastal areas. High emission scenarios are expected to lead to almost the complete loss of coral cover by 2100, although policies aiming to lower the combined aerosol-radiation interaction and aerosol-cloud interaction (e.g., IPCC RCP 6.0) may partially limit the impacts on coral reefs and the associated habitat loss, thereby preserving an estimated 14 to 20 billion USD in consumer surplus 2100 (2014 USD, 3% discount; Speers et al., 2016). Moreover, projected SLRwill increase flooding risks, and these risks will be even greater if reefs that now help protect coasts from waves are lost due to bleaching-induced mortality.

<span id="cascading-impacts-on-social-systems"></span>