The Coral Bleaching Automated Stress System (CBASS): A low‐cost, portable system for standardized empirical assessments of coral thermal limits

Temperature Stress and Coral Bleaching

Oxidative stress and seasonal coral bleaching.

During the past two decades, coral reefs have experienced extensive degradation worldwide. One etiology for this global degradation is a syndrome known as coral bleaching. Mass coral bleaching events are correlated with increased sea-surface temperatures, however, the cellular mechanism underlying this phenomenon is uncertain. To determine if oxidative stress plays a mechanistic role in the pro...

Specific Thermal Regime and Coral Bleaching Pattern in Hengam Island, the Eastern Persian Gulf

Thermal anomaly is among factors initiating coral bleaching and mortalities and threatening coral reefs worldwide. Therefore, susceptibility of corals to thermal stress is a central concern in reef conservation. In this study, we evaluated underwater temperature during 2012-13 and bleaching status of corals during summer 2012 in Hengam Island located in the eastern Persian Gulf. Hengam coral...

Validation of Reef-Scale Thermal Stress Satellite Products for Coral Bleaching Monitoring

Satellite monitoring of thermal stress on coral reefs has become an essential component of reef management practice around the world. A recent development by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coral Reef Watch (NOAA CRW) program provides daily global monitoring at 5 km resolution—at or near the scale of most coral reefs. In this paper, we introduce two new monitoring pro...

A framework for comparing coral bleaching thresholds

Coral reefs are highly vulnerable to bleaching under elevated temperature. Since 2002, NOAA Coral Reef Watch has used a bleaching threshold based on global sea surface temperatures to provide operational bleaching warnings. Recent studies suggest that modifications to the current global bleaching prediction method may result in higher predictive power. Here, we present a method for comparing fo...