A new study shows coral reefs have regulated Earth's climate and marine evolution for over 250 million years. Reef growth and collapse affected ocean alkalinity, carbon absorption, and plankton evolution, revealing long-term climate recovery processes relevant to modern CO₂ increases
These findings were published in the journal 'Nature'. The carbon cycle, the process through which carbon moves between rocks, oceans, living organisms and the atmosphere, acts as Earth's natural thermostat