Another extinction:

Elkhorn and staghorn corals used to carpet Florida’s reef system, rising like antlers from the seabed — but not anymore. These crucial coral species are now “functionally extinct” in the region after record-breaking ocean temperatures, according to a study published Thursday.

The corals, which have been dominant reef builders in Florida for the past 10,000 years, were already critically endangered due to a host of factors including disease, pollution, hurricanes and ocean warming. But an unprecedented marine heat wave may have delivered a fatal blow.

In the summer of 2023, Florida’s water temperatures peaked at more than 90 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest recorded in the region for at least 150 years.

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The heat wave marks the “functional extinction” of the colonies, the report found, a term marking the stage that often precedes the complete disappearance of a species.

While some elkhorn and staghorn corals remain, they are “no longer in densities high enough to carry out their ecological role — in this case, building and maintaining the reef structure,” said Ross Cunning, a research biologist at Shedd Aquarium and a study author.

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The loss of these corals sets off “cascading impacts,” Cunning told CNN. “Reef growth slows, habitat complexity declines, and fish and invertebrates lose shelter and resources they depend on,” he said. It also leaves coastlines more exposed to storms and erosion.

The report’s findings are “a stark warning for the future of coral reefs worldwide,” the authors wrote in a statement accompanying their research.

A recent study from the University of Exeter found the planet’s warm water coral reefs have already been pushed passed a tipping point by climate change, and reefs on any meaningful scale will be lost unless global warming is reversed.

Is global warming being reversed? No. Is it being slowed? No. Are we doing anything to attempt to slow it? No.