**Preface to "The Future of Coral Reefs: Research Submitted to ICRS 2020, Bremen, Germany"**

In connection with the 14th International Coral Reef Symposium (14th ICRS), originally planned to be held in Bremen, Germany, in July 2020, arrangements were made with the MDPI journal Oceans to produce a Special Issue associated with the conference, to which conference delegates could submit papers based on their oral presentations or posters. However, due to the COVID pandemic, we had to postpone the event. A virtual conference with more than 1300 participants was then held as the 14th ICRS in July 2021, organised by University of Bremen, while an in-person meeting will take place as 15th ICRS in July 2022 in Bremen, Germany. We expect about 1000 in-person participants plus at least 500 virtual participants.

The first Special Issue (entitled "The Future of Coral Reefs: Research submitted to 14th ICRS") based on papers submitted by July 2021 has now been concluded. This Special Issue contains 16 very interesting papers from different disciplines that can be downloaded here: https://www.mdpi.com/ journal/oceans/special issues/coral reefs. I would like to express my sincere thanks to the dedicated Guest Editor of this first Special Issue, Rupert Ormond, for his immense and tireless job in assisting the authors with improving their manuscripts.

Since the follow-up in-person meeting will take place in July 2022, it has been agreed that a second Special Issue will also be published in *Oceans*. This sister volume will retain the same name and continue to reflect the conference themes. Manuscripts for this second volume are to be submitted by 30 September 2022.

*Oceans* is an open access journal that normally charges authors a fee. We are grateful to MDPI and Oceans that they agreed to publish papers related to abstracts presented at the 14th ICRS (virtual) and the 15th ICRS (in person) free of any charge or fees. This is a unique opportunity for participants of both the 14th and the 15th ICRS to publish their work in an international, open access, and peer-reviewed journal without any associated costs. The offer clearly goes beyond previous proceedings of ICRS events.

This second volume will be edited by *Oceans* editors in cooperation with an editorial support team consisting of Leila Chapron, Sebastian Ferse, Rupert Ormond, Ronald Osinga, Peter Schupp, and myself.

We look forward to receiving contributions for this second Special Issue!
