NANJING, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Coastal ecosystems around the world have experienced varying degrees of degradation over the past half century, according to the Global Coastal Ecosystem Status Report released on Wednesday at the 2025 World Coastal Forum in east China's Jiangsu Province.
Seagrass beds, coral reefs, mollusk reefs and kelp forests have suffered the heaviest losses, with an average annual net loss rate exceeding 1 percent, the report shows.
It indicates that due to the degradation of coastal ecosystems, the population sizes of biological communities that depend on these ecosystems have declined. Over 10 percent of species in most groups are threatened, with seabirds, marine invertebrates and sea turtles facing threat levels exceeding 30 percent.
Shi Suixiang, director of the National Marine Data and Information Service, which compiled the report in collaboration with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), said that the study is the first systematic assessment of the distribution, trends and main influencing factors of 13 coastal ecosystem types globally.
Coastal urbanization, seawater warming and acidification due to climate change, and the development of fisheries, mineral and energy resources are the main factors leading to the degradation of coastal ecosystems, according to the report.
The two-day event is being held in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province. Themed "Beautiful Coasts: Ecological Priority and Green Development," this year's forum is being hosted by the Jiangsu Provincial People's Government, China's Ministry of Natural Resources and China's National Forestry and Grassland Administration. ■
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