Nutrient-supplying ocean currents modulate coral bleaching susceptibility

Modelling coral calcification accounting for the impacts of coral bleaching and ocean acidification

Coral reefs are diverse ecosystems that are threatened by rising CO2 levels through increases in sea surface temperature and ocean acidification. Here we present a new unified model that links changes in temperature and carbonate chemistry to coral health. Changes in coral health and population are explicitly modelled by linking rates of growth, recovery and calcification to rates of bleaching ...

Coral bleaching response index: a new tool to standardize and compare susceptibility to thermal bleaching.

As coral bleaching events become more frequent and intense, our ability to predict and mitigate future events depends upon our capacity to interpret patterns within previous episodes. Responses to thermal stress vary among coral species; however the diversity of coral assemblages, environmental conditions, assessment protocols, and severity criteria applied in the global effort to document blea...

Temperature Stress and Coral Bleaching

Coral bleaching--how and why?

Bleaching refers to the loss of colour in symbioses between dinoflagellate algae of the genus Symbiodinium and marine benthic animals, e.g. corals. Bleaching generally results in depressed growth and increased mortality, and it can be considered as a deleterious physiological response or ailment. An explanatory framework for the causes of bleaching comprises three elements: the external factors...

Symbiont speciWcity and bleaching susceptibility among soft corals in the 1998 Great Barrier Reef mass coral bleaching event

Considerable variability in bleaching was observed within and among soft coral taxa in the order Alcyonacea (Octocorallia: Cnidaria) on the central Great Barrier Reef (GBR, latitude 18.2°–19.0°S, longitude 146.4°–147.3°E) during the 1998 mass coral bleaching event. In April 1998, during a period of high sea surface temperatures, tissue samples were taken from bleached and unbleached colonies re...