Sea surface temperatures and coral reef bleaching off La Parguera, Puerto Rico (northeastern Caribbean Sea)

Winter, Amos; Appeldoorn, Richard S.; Bruckner, Andrew W.; Williams, Ernest H.; Goenaga, Carlos

doi:10.1007/s003380050143

Cited by 117 publications

(88 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…5f). Winter et al (1998) found similar consistency in the exposure times and temperatures during 4 severe coral bleaching events in Puerto Rico using in situ SST data spanning 30 yr. The temporal consistency of the bleaching response of coral communities also indicates that no discernible thermal adaptation response (at least in terms of bleaching) has taken place over this time period.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 53%

Time-integrated thermal bleaching thresholds of reefs and their variation on the Great Barrier Reef

Berkelmans¹

2002

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

207

170

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Knowledge of the critical levels for key environmental variables that are likely to cause bleaching in reef corals is of fundamental importance in conducting risk assessments of potential climate-change effects on coral reefs. Such knowledge can also be used to provide early warning of mass bleaching events. A number of factors have contributed to the difficulty in determining critical levels for coral bleaching. These factors include the fact that multiple stressors may be involved in bleaching, the duration of stress required to elicit a bleaching response varies with temperature, and bleaching triggers are known to be variable in space, time and by species. In this study, I identify sea surface temperature (SST) as the most important parameter for predicting coral bleaching from 4 possible environmental variables collected over 10 to 12 yr from weather stations at 2 locations on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR): temperature, wind speed, solar radiation and barometric pressure. Predicted bleaching-response curves are constructed from high-resolution in situ temperature records and historical observations of coral bleaching for 13 locations. These curves approximate reef-wide stress-response thresholds for bleaching of thermally sensitive (and often dominant) coral species. Distinct spatial trends exist in the thermal sensitivity of coral populations that correspond with position across the shelf and latitude in the case of mid-and outer-shelf reefs. This suggests that considerable thermal adaptation has taken place over small (10s of km) and large (100s to 1000s of km) spatial scales. Bleaching curves for inshore reefs do not correspond with latitude and are more variable, reflecting greater local-scale variability in temperature regimes.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 53%

Time-integrated thermal bleaching thresholds of reefs and their variation on the Great Barrier Reef

Berkelmans¹

2002

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

207

170

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“…On shallow-water reefs, many of these environmental variables are dynamic on diurnal (Ohde and Van Woesik 1999) and seasonal (Gledhill et al 2008) time scales. Super-annual trends in ocean warming (Winter et al 1998;Chollett et al 2012) and declining pH (ocean acidification, Bates 2007) over the past several decades have been confirmed by observational records around the globe. The majority of studies evaluating controls on coral calcification have been aquarium or sea-table experiments, and there are few supporting data from the field.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Calcification rates of the massive coral Siderastrea siderea and crustose coralline algae along the Florida Keys (USA) outer-reef tract

2013

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Coral reefs are degrading on a global scale, and rates of reef-organism calcification are predicted to decline due to ocean warming and acidification. Systematic measurements of calcification over space and time are necessary to detect change resulting from environmental stressors. We established a network of calcification monitoring stations at four managed reefs along the outer Florida Keys Reef Tract (FKRT) from Miami to the Dry Tortugas. Eighty colonies (in two sequential sets of 40) of the reef-building coral, Siderastrea siderea, were transplanted to fixed apparatus that allowed repetitive detachment for buoyant weighing every 6 months. Algalrecruitment tiles were also deployed during each weighing interval to measure net calcification of the crustose coralline algal (CCA) community. Coral-calcification rates were an order of magnitude greater than those of CCA. Rates of coral calcification were seasonal (summer calcification was 53 % greater than winter), and corals in the Dry Tortugas calcified 48 % faster than those at the other three sites. Linear extension rates were also highest in the Dry Tortugas, whereas percent area of the coral skeletons excavated by bioeroding fauna was lowest. The spatial patterns in net coral calcification revealed here correlate well with Holocene reef thickness along the FKRT and, in part, support the ''inimical waters hypothesis'' proposed by Ginsburg, Hudson, and Shinn almost 50 yrs ago to explain reef development in this region. Due to the homogeneity in coral-calcification rates among the three main Keys sites, we recommend refinement of this hypothesis and suggest that water-quality variables (e.g., carbonate mineral saturation state, dissolved and particulate organic matter, light attenuation) be monitored alongside calcification in future studies. Our results demonstrate that our calcification monitoring network presents a feasible and worthwhile approach to quantifying potential impacts of ocean acidification, warming, and/or deteriorating water quality on the process of calcification.

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“…Therefore, it is important for studies of thermal bleaching to characterize the complete range of biologically relevant temperature metrics in order to fully understand the causes (Fitt et al, 2001). One example of the benefits of such an approach comes from Puerto Rico, where a combination of temperature metrics -rather than simply the maximum seawater temperature, and the duration of exposure to this value (Gleeson and Strong, 1995) -provided the best predictor of coral bleaching between 1966 and 1995 (Winter et al, 1998). Similarly, off the coast of East Africa, coral bleaching was associated with degree heating weeks, degree heating months, and the variability as assessed by the standard deviation and kurtosis of the monthly mean records of sea surface temperature (SST) (McClanahan et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly, off the coast of East Africa, coral bleaching was associated with degree heating weeks, degree heating months, and the variability as assessed by the standard deviation and kurtosis of the monthly mean records of sea surface temperature (SST) (McClanahan et al, 2007). Together, studies such as those of Winter et al (1998) and McClanahan et al (2007) indirectly suggest that the thermal history of a coral matters a great deal in determining its response to thermal stress.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The physiological response of reef corals to diel fluctuations in seawater temperature

Putnam

Edmunds

2011

Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology

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An opportunity to explore the effects of fluctuating temperatures on tropical scleractinian corals arose when diurnal warming (as large as 4.7°C) was detected over the rich coral communities found within the back reef of Moorea, French Polynesia. In April and May 2007, experiments were completed to determine the effects of fluctuating temperature on Pocillopora meandrina and Porites rus, and consecutive trials were used to expose them for 13 days to 26°C, 28°C (ambient conditions), 30°C, or a fluctuating treatment ranging from 26 to 30°C over 24 h. The multivariate response was assessed using maximum dark-adapted quantum yield of PSII (F V /F M ), Symbiodinium density, chlorophyll-a content, and calcification. In trial 1, multivariate physiology of both species was significantly affected by treatments, with the fluctuating temperature resulting in a 17-45% decline in Symbiodinium density (relative to the ambient) matching that occurring at a constant 30°C; F V /F M , chlorophyll-a content, and calcification, did not differ between the fluctuating and the steady treatments. In contrast, in trial 2 that utilized corals collected two weeks after those used in trial 1, the corals were unaffected by the treatments, likely due to an environment × trial interaction caused by seasonal declines in Symbiodinium density. Together, these results demonstrate that short transgressions to ecologically relevant high and low temperatures can elicit a potentially detrimental response equivalent to that occurring upon exposure to a constant high temperature. The dissimilar responses among dependent variables and consecutive trials underscore the importance of temporal replication and multivariate approaches in coral ecophysiology. It is likely that recent history has a stronger effect on the response of corals to treatments than is currently recognized.

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Sea surface temperatures and coral reef bleaching off La Parguera, Puerto Rico (northeastern Caribbean Sea)

Cited by 117 publications

References 12 publications

Time-integrated thermal bleaching thresholds of reefs and their variation on the Great Barrier Reef

Time-integrated thermal bleaching thresholds of reefs and their variation on the Great Barrier Reef

Calcification rates of the massive coral Siderastrea siderea and crustose coralline algae along the Florida Keys (USA) outer-reef tract

The physiological response of reef corals to diel fluctuations in seawater temperature

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