Coral has a surprisingly wide range of uses, from medical implants and pharmaceutical research to coastal protection, construction, and climate science. While most people think of coral reefs as underwater ecosystems, the material itself and the living structures it forms serve humans in ways that span centuries of history and cutting-edge modern science. Globally, coral reefs provide an estimated $29.8 billion in net benefits each year.
Bone Grafts and Medical Implants
One of the most remarkable uses of coral is as a bone graft substitute in surgery. The skeleton of stony corals is made of calcium carbonate, and its internal structure features a network of interconnected pores and channels that closely resembles human cancellous (spongy) bone. Scientists can convert this calcium carbonate into hydroxyapatite, the same mineral that makes up real bone, while preserving the coral’s natural pore structure. This process, known as the replamineform technique, essentially duplicates the coral’s architecture in a material the body recognizes.
When implanted, coralline hydroxyapatite is biocompatible. Blood vessels grow into the porous structure, and bone-forming cells move in and begin building new bone tissue. Coral is one of the few animal-derived materials that can form direct chemical bonds with living bone. Products like BoneMedik, cleared by the FDA, use coral-derived hydroxyapatite for dental and craniofacial bone repair. Species in genera such as Porites and Goniopora have been the most studied for this purpose, though other genera like Montipora and Acanthastrea exist with far less clinical evidence behind them.
Pharmaceutical and Drug Research
Soft corals produce chemical compounds with structures unlike anything found in land-based organisms, making them valuable targets for drug development. A class of compounds called diterpenoids, produced by octocorals (soft corals with eight-tentacled polyps), has shown promise in fighting cancer and reducing inflammation in laboratory studies.
Researchers at UC San Diego identified a cluster of five genes responsible for diterpenoid production across multiple octocoral species. Because these compounds have novel chemical structures not seen in terrestrial plants or animals, they represent a largely untapped source of potential pharmaceuticals. The chemical defenses corals evolved to protect themselves against predators and competitors on the reef may eventually translate into treatments for human diseases.
Coastal Protection
Coral reefs act as natural breakwaters, and their effectiveness is staggering. A U.S. Geological Survey study found that healthy coral reefs reduce wave energy hitting coastlines by an average of 97 percent across all tropical oceans. The reef crest alone, the shallowest part where waves first break, dissipates 86 percent of that energy on its own. This protection shields coastal communities from storm surges, erosion, and flooding.
The economic value of this service is enormous. Of the $29.8 billion in annual benefits coral reefs provide globally, coastal protection accounts for roughly $9.0 billion. For low-lying island nations and tropical coastal cities, losing reef structure to bleaching or degradation means losing a barrier that no seawall can easily replace.
Fisheries and Tourism
About 25 percent of all marine species live in, on, or around coral reefs, a concentration of biodiversity that rivals tropical rainforests. This makes reefs critical nursery and feeding grounds for commercially important fish species. Reef-associated fisheries contribute an estimated $5.7 billion per year globally, supporting the food supply and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people in tropical regions.
Tourism and recreation tied to coral reefs generate even more, roughly $9.6 billion annually. Snorkeling, scuba diving, and reef-based ecotourism drive significant portions of the economy in countries like Australia, Indonesia, the Maldives, and throughout the Caribbean.
Historical Building Material
For centuries, coral stone served as a primary construction material in tropical regions where other building stone was scarce. On St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, coral limestone was harvested from shallow reefs and quarried from bedrock during the colonial era, beginning at least as early as the mid-1700s. Enslaved Africans cut and assembled the coral blocks into sugar processing factories, windmills, churches, hospitals, and plantation buildings.
Coral was chosen for its durability. Colonial-era structures were designed to withstand hurricane-force winds, and the material delivered. Many of those buildings still stand across the island’s hills, valleys, and urban centers today, more than two centuries later. A Danish overseer writing in 1758 described the colonial belief that the reefs surrounding St. Croix produced “a limitless supply of coral stone.” Similar coral-block construction appeared across the Caribbean, East Africa’s Swahili coast, and parts of South and Southeast Asia.
Climate and Ocean History Records
Coral skeletons are one of the most valuable tools scientists have for reconstructing past ocean conditions. As coral polyps grow, they secrete aragonite (a crystal form of calcium carbonate) that incorporates trace elements from the surrounding seawater. Massive coral colonies can grow several meters tall and live for hundreds of years, laying down annual density bands visible under X-ray, much like tree rings.
The chemical composition of each layer reflects conditions at the time it was deposited. Strontium-to-calcium ratios in the skeleton track sea surface temperature with high precision, while oxygen isotope ratios capture both temperature and salinity changes. By pairing these two measurements, researchers can separate the temperature signal from the rainfall and evaporation signal, reconstructing not just how warm the ocean was in a given year but also how wet or dry the regional climate was.
These coral-based climate records fill a critical gap. Instrumental ocean temperature measurements only go back about 150 years, and they’re sparse in the tropics. Coral cores extend that record by centuries, providing high-resolution data on phenomena like El Niño cycles, monsoon variability, and long-term ocean warming trends. Calibration equations convert the raw chemistry into temperature estimates, with uncertainties of just a few years in dating, making coral archives among the most precise paleoclimate tools available for tropical oceans.
Jewelry and Decorative Arts
Precious coral, particularly red and pink varieties from the genus Corallium, has been used in jewelry and ornamentation for thousands of years. Mediterranean red coral was traded across Europe, North Africa, and Asia as far back as ancient Rome. The material is hard enough to be carved and polished, and its deep color made it highly prized for necklaces, cameos, and religious objects. Today, harvesting of precious coral is heavily regulated in many regions due to overexploitation, though it remains culturally significant in parts of Italy, Japan, and Taiwan. The market value of high-quality red coral can rival that of semi-precious gemstones.