Abstract

Understanding the processes forming urban coral reefs may be crucial for foreseeing future conservation issues given the expected increases in urbanization in tropical and subtropical countries. To find commonalities among urban coral reefs and explain how urbanization affects hard coral assemblages, we took a case study method. 11 cities in East and Southeast Asia’s data were gathered, with a particular focus on Singapore, Jakarta, Hong Kong, and Naha Okinawa. Our review highlights several important traits of urban coral reefs, such as “reef compression” a decline in bathymetric range with increasing turbidity and decreasing water clarity over time and relative to shore, dominance of rounded coral growth forms and low reef complexity, variable inshore-offshore gradients specific to specific cities, early declines in coral cover with recent fluctuating coral cover, and more. Periods of severe effects and quick recovery, as well as hard corals colonizing urban infrastructure we address the possibilities for ecological engineering to support corals in urban locations and give predictions for the dynamics of urban reef communities. Globally, urbanization and population increase in coastal regions are occurring at previously unheard-of rates.