Coral reefs are often constrained by diagenesis as a sound environmental archive. The correct understanding and evaluation of diagenesis is the key to the paleoenvironmental reconstruction of coral reefs. The diagenesis of coral reefs mainly includes cementation, dissolution, neomorphism and dolomitization etc. On the one hand, the diagenesis itself can record the paleoenvironment that coral reefs underwent, such as sea-level fluctuation, climate change, change of sea water, hydrothermal alteration, microbial activity and so on. The diagenetic evolution thus can be used for the reconstruction of paleoenvironment change. On the other hand, diagenesis also destroys the original environmental information which recorded of coral reefs recard, and it is necessary to know the degree of the impact of diagenesis. In the future, we should pay more attention to the study on the relationships among diagenesis, modern climate, sea-level change, atmospheric water transformation and microbial activity. It can provide more accurate and longer time series of paleoenvironmental information that coral reefs recorded.