Coral mortality induced by the 2015–2016 El-Niño in Indonesia: the effect of rapid sea level fall

Ampou, Eghbert Elvan; Johan, Ofri; Menkès, Christophe E.; Niño, Fernando; Birol, Florence; Ouillon, Sylvain; Andréfouët, Serge

doi:10.5194/bg-2016-375

Cited by 17 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…The coldest year was 2006 (26.73 • C), and the warmest year was 2016 (27.42 • C). The coldest and the warmest years differed by approximately 0.69 • C. We show the main reasons for the decrease in the LST in 2016, which could be due to the El Niño event [58]. The annual trends of mean temperature by the Mann-Kendall test are given in Table 1.…”

Section: Average Lst Changementioning

confidence: 76%

Analysis of the Spatiotemporal Change in Land Surface Temperature for a Long-Term Sequence in Africa (2003–2017)

et al. 2020

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It is very important to understand the temporal and spatial variations of land surface temperature (LST) in Africa to determine the effects of temperature on agricultural production. Although thermal infrared remote sensing technology can quickly obtain surface temperature information, it is greatly affected by clouds and rainfall. To obtain a complete and continuous dataset on the spatiotemporal variations in LST in Africa, a reconstruction model based on the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) LST time series and ground station data was built to refactor the LST dataset (2003–2017). The first step in the reconstruction model is to filter low-quality LST pixels contaminated by clouds and then fill the pixels using observation data from ground weather stations. Then, the missing pixels are interpolated using the inverse distance weighting (IDW) method. The evaluation shows that the accuracy between reconstructed LST and ground station data is high (root mean square er–ror (RMSE) = 0.84 °C, mean absolute error (MAE) = 0.75 °C and correlation coefficient (R) = 0.91). The spatiotemporal analysis of the LST indicates that the change in the annual average LST from 2003–2017 was weak and the warming trend in Africa was remarkably uneven. Geographically, “the warming is more pronounced in the north and the west than in the south and the east”. The most significant warming occurred near the equatorial region in South Africa (slope > 0.05, R > 0.61, p < 0.05) and the central (slope = 0.08, R = 0.89, p < 0.05) regions, and a nonsignificant decreasing trend occurred in Botswana. Additionally, the mid-north region (north of Chad, north of Niger and south of Algeria) became colder (slope > −0.07, R = 0.9, p < 0.05), with a nonsignificant trend. Seasonally, significant warming was more pronounced in winter, mostly in the west, especially in Mauritania (slope > 0.09, R > 0.9, p < 0.5). The response of the different types of surface to the surface temperature has shown variability at different times, which provides important information to understand the effects of temperature changes on crop yields, which is critical for the planning of agricultural farming systems in Africa.

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Section: Average Lst Changementioning

confidence: 76%

Analysis of the Spatiotemporal Change in Land Surface Temperature for a Long-Term Sequence in Africa (2003–2017)

et al. 2020

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“…In light of the recent bleaching events affecting Indo-Pacific reefs, it would have been interesting to evaluate the implications of our results on the current response of coral assemblages. Recent study at the shallow reef flat at Bunaken (North Sulawesi, Indonesia) showed that coral mortality was not solely induced by the 2015–2016 El Niño event, but also by a rapid sea level fall observed on that year 74 . It caused up to 85% mortality on reefs dominated by massive and encrusting corals such as Porites , Goniastrea , and Heliopora 74 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A functional approach to the structural complexity of coral assemblages based on colony morphological features

Denis

Ribas-Deulofeu

Sturaro

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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Colony morphological features is among the best predictor of the scleractinian coral’s function in reef ecosystems. However, morphological traits are categorical and to convert this information into a quantitative value as well as estimate their influence on ecosystem process remain a challenge. Here, we propose a trait-based approach to quantify morphological diversity and assess the structural complexity of the habitat provided by corals. We used a previously published dataset that is related to a bleaching event that affected the coral reef off Tikus Island in Indonesia in 1983. We found clear signs of recovery of the coral assemblage’s complexity toward pre El Niño conditions five years after the event. Independent of the change observed in species richness, this return in structural complexity was accompanied by a global decrease in species number associated with each particular morphological entity (Functional Redundancy) and an increase in the number of single-species entities (Functional Vulnerability). Together with species loss, we show an overall functional erosion of the coral assemblage and suggest that the role of the coral reef habitat could be strongly imperiled under repeated or synergistic disturbances. This approach offers an opportunity for a better understanding of coral responses to natural and anthropogenic disturbances.

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“…While it is feasible that El Niño might affect coral recruitment in Mo’orea through mechanisms other than temperature—for example, through depressed sea level [ 1 , 70 ] that could limit cross-reef transport of seawater and the larvae it contains [ 58 , 59 ]—without data supporting this hypothesis, it is less parsimonious than mechanisms relying on temperature. Unfortunately, it is not possible to retrospectively evaluate coral fecundity without archived samples (which are not available for Mo’orea) and, therefore, it is not possible to evaluate the role of variable fecundity in driving the differences in recruitment reported in the present study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unusually high coral recruitment during the 2016 El Niño in Mo’orea, French Polynesia

Edmunds

2017

PLoS ONE

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The negative implications of the thermal sensitivity of reef corals became clear with coral bleaching throughout the Caribbean in the 1980’s, and later globally, with the severe El Niño of 1998 and extensive seawater warming in 2005. These events have substantially contributed to declines in coral cover, and therefore the El Niño of 2016 raised concerns over the implications for coral reefs; on the Great Barrier Reef these concerns have been realized. A different outcome developed in Mo’orea, French Polynesia, where in situ seawater temperature from 15 March 2016 to 15 April 2016 was an average of 0.4°C above the upper 95% CI of the decadal mean temperature, and the NOAA Degree Heating Weeks (DHW) metric supported a Level 1 bleaching alert (DHW ≥ 4.0). Starting 1 September 2016 and for the rest of the year (122 d), in situ seawater temperature was an average of 0.4°C above the 95% CI of long-term values, although DHW remained at zero. Minor coral bleaching (0.2–2.6% of the coral) occurred on the outer reef (10-m and 17-m depth) in April 2016, by May 2016 it had intensified to affect 1.3–16.8% of the coral, but by August 2016, only 1.4–3.0% of the coral was bleached. Relative to the previous decade, recruitment of scleractinians to settlement tiles on the outer- (10 m) and back- (2 m) reef over 2016/17 was high, both from January 2016 to August 2016, and from August 2016 to January 2017, with increased relative abundances of pocilloporids on the outer reef, and acroporids in the back reef. The 2016 El Niño created a distinctive signature in seawater temperature for Mo’orea, but it did not cause widespread coral bleaching or mortality, rather, it was associated with high coral recruitment. While the 2016 El Niño has negatively affected other coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific, the coral communities of Mo’orea continue to show signs of resilience, thus cautioning against general statements regarding the effects of the 2015/16 El Niño on coral reefs in the region.

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Coral mortality induced by the 2015–2016 El-Niño in Indonesia: the effect of rapid sea level fall

Cited by 17 publications

References 20 publications

Analysis of the Spatiotemporal Change in Land Surface Temperature for a Long-Term Sequence in Africa (2003–2017)

Analysis of the Spatiotemporal Change in Land Surface Temperature for a Long-Term Sequence in Africa (2003–2017)

A functional approach to the structural complexity of coral assemblages based on colony morphological features

Unusually high coral recruitment during the 2016 El Niño in Mo’orea, French Polynesia

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