An enigmatic decoupling between heat stress and coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef
DeCarlo, Thomas M., and Harrison, Hugo B. (2019) An enigmatic decoupling between heat stress and coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef. PeerJ, 7. e7473.
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Abstract
Ocean warming threatens the functioning of coral reef ecosystems by inducing mass coral bleaching and mortality events. The link between temperature and coral bleaching is now well-established based on observations that mass bleaching events usually occur when seawater temperatures are anomalously high. However, times of high heat stress but without coral bleaching are equally important because they can inform an understanding of factors that regulate temperature-induced bleaching. Here, we investigate the absence of mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) during austral summer 2004. Using four gridded sea surface temperature data products, validated with in situ temperature loggers, we demonstrate that the summer of 2004 was among the warmest summers of the satellite era (1982–2017) on the GBR. At least half of the GBR experienced temperatures that were high enough to initiate bleaching in other years, yet mass bleaching was not reported during 2004. The absence of bleaching is not fully explained by wind speed or cloud cover. Rather, 2004 is clearly differentiated from bleaching years by the slow speed of the East Australian Current (EAC) offshore of the GBR. An anomalously slow EAC during summer 2004 may have dampened the upwelling of nutrient-rich waters onto the GBR shelf, potentially mitigating bleaching due to the lower susceptibility of corals to heat stress in low-nutrient conditions. Although other factors such as irradiance or acclimatization may have played a role in the absence of mass bleaching, 2004 remains a key case study for demonstrating the dynamic nature of coral responses to marine heatwaves.
Item ID: | 59871 |
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Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
ISSN: | 2167-8359 |
Copyright Information: | © 2019 DeCarlo and Harrison. Distributed under Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0. |
Funders: | Australian Research Council (ARC) |
Projects and Grants: | ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award DE160101141 |
Research Data: | http://codeocean.com/capsule/8487532/ |
Date Deposited: | 02 Sep 2019 23:14 |
FoR Codes: | 41 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 4101 Climate change impacts and adaptation > 410102 Ecological impacts of climate change and ecological adaptation @ 100% |
SEO Codes: | 96 ENVIRONMENT > 9603 Climate and Climate Change > 960304 Climate Variability (excl. Social Impacts) @ 100% |
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