Coral health assessment and in-situ water temperatures at various sites along Western Australia in 2015-2016

Fuente: PANGAEA
Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Le Nohaïc, Morane, Ross, Claire Louise, Cornwall, Christopher Edward, Comeau, Steeve, Lowe, Ryan, McCulloch, Malcolm T, Schoepf, Verena
Formato: Dataset Open Access
Lenguaje:en
Publicado: PANGAEA 2017
Acceso en línea:
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
_version_ 1867168570959462400
author Le Nohaïc, Morane
Ross, Claire Louise
Cornwall, Christopher Edward
Comeau, Steeve
Lowe, Ryan
McCulloch, Malcolm T
Schoepf, Verena
author_facet Le Nohaïc, Morane
Ross, Claire Louise
Cornwall, Christopher Edward
Comeau, Steeve
Lowe, Ryan
McCulloch, Malcolm T
Schoepf, Verena
collection Datos científicos de ciencias marinas y ambientales
contents In 2015/16, a marine heatwave associated with a record El Niño led to the third global mass bleaching event documented to date. This event impacted coral reefs around the world, including in Western Australia (WA), although WA reefs had largely escaped bleaching during previous strong El Niño years. Coral health surveys were conducted during the austral summer of 2016 in four bioregions along the WA coast (~17 degrees of latitude), ranging from tropical to temperate locations. Here we report the first El Niño-related regional-scale mass bleaching event in WA. The heatwave primarily affected the macrotidal Kimberley region in northwest WA (~16°S), where 4.5-9.3 degree heating weeks (DHW) resulted in 56.6-80.6% bleaching, demonstrating that even heat-tolerant corals from naturally extreme, thermally variable reef environments are threatened by heatwaves. Some heat stress (2.4 DHW) and bleaching (<30%) also occurred at Rottnest Island (32°01'S), whereas coral communities at Ningaloo Reef (23°9'S) and Bremer Bay (34°25'S) were not impacted. The only other major mass bleaching in WA occurred during a strong La Niña event in 2010/11 and primarily affected reefs along the central-to-southern coast. This suggests that WA reefs are now at risk of severe bleaching during both El Niño and La Niña years.
format Dataset Open Access
id pangaea_https___doi_org_10_1594_PANGAEA_883211
institution PANGAEA
language en
publishDate 2017
publisher PANGAEA
record_format pangaea
spellingShingle Coral health assessment and in-situ water temperatures at various sites along Western Australia in 2015-2016
Le Nohaïc, Morane
Ross, Claire Louise
Cornwall, Christopher Edward
Comeau, Steeve
Lowe, Ryan
McCulloch, Malcolm T
Schoepf, Verena

In 2015/16, a marine heatwave associated with a record El Niño led to the third global mass bleaching event documented to date. This event impacted coral reefs around the world, including in Western Australia (WA), although WA reefs had largely escaped bleaching during previous strong El Niño years. Coral health surveys were conducted during the austral summer of 2016 in four bioregions along the WA coast (~17 degrees of latitude), ranging from tropical to temperate locations. Here we report the first El Niño-related regional-scale mass bleaching event in WA. The heatwave primarily affected the macrotidal Kimberley region in northwest WA (~16°S), where 4.5-9.3 degree heating weeks (DHW) resulted in 56.6-80.6% bleaching, demonstrating that even heat-tolerant corals from naturally extreme, thermally variable reef environments are threatened by heatwaves. Some heat stress (2.4 DHW) and bleaching (<30%) also occurred at Rottnest Island (32°01'S), whereas coral communities at Ningaloo Reef (23°9'S) and Bremer Bay (34°25'S) were not impacted. The only other major mass bleaching in WA occurred during a strong La Niña event in 2010/11 and primarily affected reefs along the central-to-southern coast. This suggests that WA reefs are now at risk of severe bleaching during both El Niño and La Niña years.
title Coral health assessment and in-situ water temperatures at various sites along Western Australia in 2015-2016
topic
url https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883211