This issue of Science offers a look at several sides of a compelling environmental story: The ongoing decline of worldwide coral reef ecosystems -- largely owing to human impacts such as global climate change. A review by Hughes et al. examines the overall scale of the human threat on global reefs, and highlights the need for a strong policy response. And three research reports document various aspects of the reef decline, ranging from the escalating threat posed to reefs by the environmental effects of tropical wildfires (Abram et al.) to the long-term regional declines of corals in the Caribbean (Gardner et al.) to the broad trajectory of worldwide coral reef decline over the past several centuries, due not only to climate change but to other factors such as land pollution and overfishing (Pandolfi et al.).

Review: Climate Change, Human Impacts, and the Resilience of Coral Reefs
Hughes et al.
Science 301, 929 (2003)

Report: Coral Reef Death During the 1997 Indian Ocean Dipole Linked to Indonesian Wildfires
Abram et al.
Science 301, 952 (2003)

Report: Long-Term Region-Wide Declines in Caribbean Corals
Gardner et al.
Science 301, 958 (2003)

Report: Global Trajectories of the Long-Term Decline of Coral Reef Ecosystems
Pandolfi et al.
Science 301, 955 (2003)