Skeletal records of bleaching reveal different thermal thresholds of Pacific coral reef assemblages

Mollica, Nathaniel R.; Cohen, Anne L.; Alpert, Alice E.; Barkley, Hannah C.; Brainard, Russell E.; Carilli, Jessica; DeCarlo, Thomas M.; Drenkard, Elizabeth J.; Lohmann, Pat; Mangubhai, Sangeeta; Pietro, Kathryn R.; Rivera, Hanny E.; Rotjan, Randi D.; Scott-Buechler, Celina; Solow, Andrew R.; Young, Charles W.

doi:10.1007/s00338-019-01803-x

Cited by 18 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…The positive pointer year in 1989 and absence of any noticeable post-bleaching depression of annual calcification rates [69,70] in the time series data (Fig 2b) suggests a rapid recovery in D. labyrinthiformis calcification rates. Furthermore, high density skeletal growth anomalies have been associated with coral bleaching events [70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79], but no positive pointer years were detectable in the skeletal density data of this study (S2 Fig). While subsequent minor coral bleaching events have occurred throughout the Bermuda platform in the years following the 1988 bleaching event [15], there were no detectable impacts of these additional events on calcification rates in the pointer year analyses of this study (Fig 2b-2d).…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 58%

Coral calcification responses to the North Atlantic Oscillation and coral bleaching in Bermuda

2020

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The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) has been hypothesized to drive interannual variability in Bermudan coral extension rates and reef-scale calcification through the provisioning of nutritional pulses associated with negative NAO winters. However, the direct influence of the NAO on Bermudan coral calcification rates remains to be determined and may vary between species and reef sites owing to implicit differences in coral life history strategies and environmental gradients across the Bermuda reef platform. In this study, we investigated the connection between negative NAO winters and Bermudan Diploria labyrinthiformis, Pseudodiploria strigosa, and Orbicella franksi coral calcification rates across rim reef, lagoon, and nearshore reef sites. Linear mixed effects modeling detected an inverse correlation between D. labyrinthiformis calcification rates and the winter NAO index, with higher rates associated with increasingly negative NAO winters. Conversely, there were no detectable correlations between P. strigosa or O. franksi calcification rates and the winter NAO index suggesting that coral calcification responses associated with negative NAO winters could be species-specific. The correlation between coral calcification rates and winter NAO index was significantly more negative at the outer rim of the reef (Hog Reef) compared to a nearshore reef site (Whalebone Bay), possibly indicating differential influence of the NAO as a function of the distance from the reef edge. Furthermore, a negative calcification anomaly was observed in 100% of D. labyrinthiformis cores in association with the 1988 coral bleaching event with a subsequent positive calcification anomaly in 1989 indicating a post-bleaching recovery in calcification rates. These results highlight the importance of assessing variable interannual coral calcification responses between species and across inshore-offshore gradients to interannual atmospheric modes such as the NAO, thermal stress events, and potential interactions between ocean warming and availability of coral nutrition to improve projections for future coral calcification rates under climate change.

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Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 58%

Coral calcification responses to the North Atlantic Oscillation and coral bleaching in Bermuda

2020

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“…Weekly mean SSTs were used to quantify the maximum temperature achieved during each bleaching event to ensure conservative estimates that are temporally aligned with the period of peak thermal stress and less subject to short-term temperature spikes or missing data from finer resolution SST data products. Degree Heating Weeks (DHWs) were quantified using two methods, the traditional NOAA's Coral Reef Watch DHW where a bleaching threshold is defined as 1°C above the mean monthly maximum SST (MMM) (Liu et al, 2003) and the percentile method (Mollica et al, 2019). Percentile DHWs more accurately reflect thermal stress in regions where seasonal variability is not dominant, such as the CEP, because it accounts for the strong interannual-variability (Mollica et al, 2019).…”

Section: Quantification Of Thermal Stressmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing Coral Reef Resilience Through Successive Marine Heatwaves

Fox

Cohen

Rotjan

et al. 2021

Geophysical Research Letters

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Marine heatwaves have increased in frequency and magnitude with devastating consequences for ocean ecosystems (Smale et al., 2019). Tropical reef-building corals have been particularly hard hit, with significant global declines linked to thermal stress (Hughes et al., 2018). As the oceans continue to warm, model projections of coral reef futures have become increasingly dire (van Hooidonk et al., 2016).Yet, amidst widespread declines are indications that some coral populations have the ability to survive rising sea surface temperatures (SST) (Romero-

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“…Finally, Porites colonies could conceivably miss a bleaching event if calcification completely ceases. Nevertheless, Porites stress bands have captured known bleaching events across the Indo-Pacific ( Cantin & Lough, 2014 ; Barkley & Cohen, 2016 ; DeCarlo et al, 2017 ; DeCarlo et al, 2019 ; DeCarlo et al, 2020 ; Barkley et al, 2018 ), and the presence of Porites stress bands has correlated with community-level bleaching responses ( Barkley & Cohen, 2016 ; Mollica et al, 2019 ; DeCarlo et al, 2020 ). Thus, that the cores from Abu Shosha generally recorded the known bleaching events in 1998, 2010, and 2015 supports the accuracy of Porites stress bands for representing past bleaching events in this region.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The past century of coral bleaching in the Saudi Arabian central Red Sea

DeCarlo

2020

PeerJ

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Accurate knowledge of the spatial and temporal patterns of coral bleaching is essential both for understanding how coral reef ecosystems are changing today and forecasting their future states. Yet, in many regions of the world, the history of bleaching is poorly known, especially prior to the late 20th century. Here, I use the information preserved within skeleton cores of long-lived Porites corals to reconstruct the past century of bleaching events in the Saudi Arabian central Red Sea. In these cores, skeletal “stress bands”—indicative of past bleaching—captured known bleaching events that occurred in 1998 and 2010, but also revealed evidence of previously unknown bleaching events in 1931, 1978, and 1982. However, these earlier events affected a significantly lesser proportion of corals than 1998 and 2010. Therefore, coral bleaching may have occurred in the central Red Sea earlier than previously recognized, but the frequency and severity of bleaching events since 1998 on nearshore reefs is unprecedented over the past century. Conversely, corals living on mid- to outer-shelf reefs have not been equally susceptible to bleaching as their nearshore counterparts, which was evident in that stress bands were five times more prevalent nearshore. Whether this pattern of susceptible nearshore reefs and resistant outer-shelf reefs continues in the future remains a key question in forecasting coral reef futures in this region.

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Skeletal records of bleaching reveal different thermal thresholds of Pacific coral reef assemblages

Cited by 18 publications

References 57 publications

Coral calcification responses to the North Atlantic Oscillation and coral bleaching in Bermuda

Coral calcification responses to the North Atlantic Oscillation and coral bleaching in Bermuda

Increasing Coral Reef Resilience Through Successive Marine Heatwaves

The past century of coral bleaching in the Saudi Arabian central Red Sea

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