Coral Islands and there Reefs. Economic and Ecological Significance.

C.R.Wilikinson (1996) concluded that coral reefs would fair more favourably to sea level rise than nearby coral islands, citing a lack of a growth mechanism, whilst a well-accepted depositional mechanism now exists allowing islands to grow, the fate of these related landforms and their inhabitants is now known to be strongly intertwined.

An article by Greg Ansley summarising Julian Cribb's book The Coming Famine: The Global Food Crisis and What We Can Do To Avoid It cites 'decimation of coral reefs' as a key factor as to the food crisis which human populations face, specifically those living on nearby coral reefs who depend on the food supplied by these landforms. Worst case scenarios by Wilkinson (1993) predict 70 per cent losses of coral reefs by 2030 through a range of anthropogenic impacts if mitigation efforts are not put into place. When this is put in the context Pernetta (1992) set of 'dependence' of this maritime resource for food and trade by atoll nations in the pacific then the question of whether the nations are 'doomed' or not due to sea level rise seems secondary to the threats posed by ecological and economic destruction of these nations resources.

http://reefrelief.org/ is an organisation dedicated to 'preserving and protecting living coral reef ecosystems'. http://reefrelief.org/threats-to-coral-reefs/ at this site details Wilkinson's (1993) wide range of threats anthropogenic activities pose to coral reefs, and therefore coral islands. A useful summary which also breaks down the threats into direct and indirect categories has been made by the Microdoc's Youtube Channel:

Unfortunately Pernetta (1992) concluded that these small coral island nations are 'ill equipped to handle existing environmental problem which will worsen as climate changes', this limited ability to tackle these problems could in the near term actually 'doom' these low lying coral island nations, forcing populations to flee, even if sea level rise itself does not.

References:

Wilikinson.C.R. 1996. Global change and coral reefs: impacts on reefs, economies and human cultures. Global Change Biology. 2, 547-558

Pernetta, J.C. 1992. Impacts of Climate Change and Sea -Level Rise on Small Islands States: National and International Responses.