Coral bleaching at Little Cayman, Cayman Islands 2009

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-20-2012

Abstract

The global rise in sea temperature through anthropogenic climate change is affecting coral reef ecosystems through a phenomenon known as coral bleaching; that is, the whitening of corals due to the loss of the symbiotic zooxanthellae which impart corals with their characteristic vivid coloration. We describe aspects of the most prevalent episode of coral bleaching ever recorded at Little Cayman, Cayman Islands, during the fall of 2009. The most susceptible corals were found to be, in order, . Siderastrea siderea, . Montastraea annularis, and . Montastraea faveolata, while . Diplora strigosa and Agaricia spp. were less so, yet still showed considerable bleaching prevalence and severity. Those found to be least susceptible were . Porites porites, . Porites astreoides, and . Montastraea cavernosa. These observations and other reported observations of coral bleaching, together with 29 years (1982-2010) of satellite-derived sea surface temperatures, were used to optimize bleaching predictions at this location. To do this a Degree Heating Weeks (DHW) and Peirce Skill Score (PSS) analysis was employed to calculate a local bleaching threshold above which bleaching was expected to occur. A threshold of 4.2 DHW had the highest skill, with a PSS of 0.70. The method outlined here could be applied to other regions to find the optimal bleaching threshold and improve bleaching predictions. © 2012.

Publication Title

Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science

First Page Number

80

Last Page Number

84

DOI

10.1016/j.ecss.2012.04.021

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS