Details:

Journal Title:
Communications Biology
Personal Author:
Barkley, Hannah C. ; Cohen, Anne L. ; Mollica, Nathaniel R. ; Brainard, Russell E. ; Rivera, Hanny E. ; ... More +
Barkley, Hannah C. ; Cohen, Anne L. ; Mollica, Nathaniel R. ; Brainard, Russell E. ; Rivera, Hanny E. ; DeCarlo, Thomas M. ; Lohmann, George P. ; Drenkard, Elizabeth J. ; Alpert, Alice E. ; Young, Charles W. ; Vargas-Ángel, Bernardo ; Lino, Kevin C. ; Oliver, Thomas A. ; Pietro, Kathryn R. ; Luu, Victoria H. Less -
NOAA Program & Office:
NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) ; PIFSC (Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center) ; JIMAR (Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research)
NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) ; PIFSC (Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center) ; JIMAR (Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research) Less -
Description:
The oceans are warming and coral reefs are bleaching with increased frequency and severity, fueling concerns for their survival through this century. Yet in the central equatorial Pacific, some of the world’s most productive reefs regularly experience extreme heat associated with El Niño. Here we use skeletal signatures preserved in long-lived corals on Jarvis Island to evaluate the coral community response to multiple successive heatwaves since 1960. By tracking skeletal stress band formation through the 2015-16 El Nino, which killed 95% of Jarvis corals, we validate their utility as proxies of bleaching severity and show that 2015-16 was not the first catastrophic bleaching event on Jarvis. Since 1960, eight severe (>30% bleaching) and two moderate (<30% bleaching) events occurred, each coinciding with El Niño. While the frequency and severity of bleaching on Jarvis did not increase over this time period, 2015–16 was unprecedented in magnitude. The trajectory of recovery of this historically resilient ecosystem will provide critical insights into the potential for coral reef resilience in a warming world.
Source:
Communications Biology, 1(1), 177.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-018-0183-7
Document Type:
Journal Article
Rights Information:
CC BY
Compliance:
Submitted
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:ae5d0b0fc496260b6083c06f93b26d614b7f0834801d914d9c5850d31b8f400e
Download URL:
https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/22087/noaa_22087_DS1.pdf
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