Comparison of Satellite-Based Sea Surface Temperature to In Situ Observations Surrounding Coral Reefs in La Parguera, Puerto Rico

Gomez, A. M.; McDonald, K. C.; Shein, K A; DeVries, Stephanie; Armstrong, Roy A.; Hernández, William J.; Carlo, Milton

doi:10.3390/jmse8060453

Cited by 16 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…The use of satellite-derived SST measurements to represent benthic temperature patterns has been frequently assessed via comparisons of different databases with in situ logger measurements at the same locations. While these studies report that satellite-derived measurements often underestimate in situ temperatures [74,75], the consensus is that satellite databases accurately reflect temperature conditions on many coral reefs at depth [21,75,76] and are a useful tool for identifying global warming signals [67]. Monthly SST measurements were averaged across all reef locations to assess historic SST trends on Caribbean coral reefs per sampling period (month) as well as within individual ecoregions.…”

Section: Historic Sst Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

A century of warming on Caribbean reefs

2022

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The world’s oceans are warming at an unprecedented rate, causing dramatic changes to coastal marine systems, especially coral reefs. We used three complementary ocean temperature databases (HadISST, Pathfinder, and OISST) to quantify change in thermal characteristics of Caribbean coral reefs over the last 150 years (1871–2020). These sea surface temperature (SST) databases included in situ and satellite-derived measurements at multiple spatial resolutions. We also compiled a Caribbean coral reef database identifying 5,326 unique reefs across the region. We found that Caribbean reefs have been warming for at least a century. Regionally reef warming began in 1915, and for four of the eight Caribbean ecoregions we assessed, significant warming was detected for the latter half of the nineteenth century. Following the global mid-twentieth century stasis, warming resumed on Caribbean reefs in the early 1980s in some ecoregions and in the 1990s for others. On average, Caribbean reefs warmed by 0.18°C per decade during this period, ranging from 0.17°C per decade on Bahamian reefs (since 1988) to 0.26°C per decade on reefs within the Southern and Eastern Caribbean ecoregions (since 1981 and 1984, respectively). If this linear rate of warming continues, these already threatened ecosystems would warm by an additional ~1.5°C on average by 2100. We also found that marine heatwave (MHW) events are increasing in both frequency and duration across the Caribbean. Caribbean coral reefs now experience on average 5 MHW events annually, compared to 1 per year in the early 1980s, with recent events lasting on average 14 days. These changes in the thermal environment, in addition to other stressors including fishing and pollution, have caused a dramatic shift in the composition and functioning of Caribbean coral reef ecosystems.

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Section: Historic Sst Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

A century of warming on Caribbean reefs

2022

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“…to CRW. This difference is not surprising, and the models are perhaps more correct than CRW as satellite products have been shown to have a cool bias compared to in situ observations in the area (Gomez et al 2020). Larger modelspecific biases arise when examining temporal variability.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Added value of a regional coupled model: the case study for marine heatwaves in the Caribbean

et al. 2023

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There is an urgent need to improve capacity to predict marine heatwaves given their substantial negative impacts on marine ecosystems. Here we present the added value of a regional climate simulation, performed with the regional Coupled-Ocean–Atmosphere-Wave-Sediment Transport model COAWST, centered over the Caribbean – one of the first of its kind on a climatological scale. We show its added value with regards to temporal distribution of marine heatwaves, compared with state-of-the-art global models. In this region, global models tend to simulate too few heatwaves that last too long compared to the observation-based dataset of CoralTemp. The regional climate model agrees more favourably with the CoralTemp dataset, particularly in winter. While examining potential mechanisms behind the differences we find that the more realistic representation of marine heatwaves in the regional model arises from the sea surface temperatures ability to increase/decrease more quickly in the regional model than in the global model. The reason for this is two fold. Firstly, the regional model has a shallower mixed layer than the global model which results in a lower heat capacity that allows its sea surface temperatures to warm and cool more quickly. The second reason is found during days when marine heatwaves are increasing in intensity. During these days, reduced wind speeds leads to less latent heat release and a faster warming surface, more so in the regional model than in the global models.

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“…Furthermore, it is possible to use deep neural networks to predict SST even more accurately [212]. However, even though the measured SST and the real temperature experienced by reefs can be similar [213], it is not always the case depending on the sensors used and other measurements such as wind, waves and seasons [214]. To try to overcome this issue and obtain finer predictions of the severity of bleaching events, it is possible to combine water temperature with other factors such as the light stress factor [215], known to be a cause of bleaching [216].…”

Section: Indirect Sensingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping of Coral Reefs with Multispectral Satellites: A Review of Recent Papers

et al. 2021

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Coral reefs are an essential source of marine biodiversity, but they are declining at an alarming rate under the combined effects of global change and human pressure. A precise mapping of coral reef habitat with high spatial and time resolutions has become a necessary step for monitoring their health and evolution. This mapping can be achieved remotely thanks to satellite imagery coupled with machine-learning algorithms. In this paper, we review the different satellites used in recent literature, as well as the most common and efficient machine-learning methods. To account for the recent explosion of published research on coral reel mapping, we especially focus on the papers published between 2018 and 2020. Our review study indicates that object-based methods provide more accurate results than pixel-based ones, and that the most accurate methods are Support Vector Machine and Random Forest. We emphasize that the satellites with the highest spatial resolution provide the best images for benthic habitat mapping. We also highlight that preprocessing steps (water column correction, sunglint removal, etc.) and additional inputs (bathymetry data, aerial photographs, etc.) can significantly improve the mapping accuracy.

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Comparison of Satellite-Based Sea Surface Temperature to In Situ Observations Surrounding Coral Reefs in La Parguera, Puerto Rico

Cited by 16 publications

References 47 publications

A century of warming on Caribbean reefs

A century of warming on Caribbean reefs

Added value of a regional coupled model: the case study for marine heatwaves in the Caribbean

Mapping of Coral Reefs with Multispectral Satellites: A Review of Recent Papers

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