Four consecutive coral bleaching events in the Northern Persian Gulf: 2014–2017

Climate change-induced bleaching is a serious threat to coral reefs worldwide. In recent years, the number of repeated extensive events has increased globally. Here, we present four consecutive and post-bleaching mortalities from sites on Hormuz Larak Islands, Iran, in Persian Gulf 2014 2017. The high thermotolerance corals their endosymbiotic algae strong water currents sites’ turbidity could not protect majority against bleaching. Back-to-back left almost no unbleached colony at any site by Despite that, mortality did increase Island that may be sign fast recovery after each event. However, abundance colonies with 81%-100% was constantly minimal first three years significantly Considering responses, dynamics genera study sites, it seems Dipsastraea southwest short-term winner; despite facing widespread moderate (i.e., 50 bleached), there non-significant 27% reduction its abundance. north also survived but > 66% showed 81%–100% Such findings warn aforementioned successes are unlikely persist under annual severe as predicted for coming decades.