A Crucial Time for Reefs: Climate Change, El Niño, and the 2014-16 Global Bleaching Event
C. Mark Eakin1, Gang Liu2, Erick Francis Geiger1, Scott F Heron3, William J Skirving3, Jacqueline L De La Cour4, Alan E Strong5, Kyle Tirak6 and Tim Burgess3, (1)NOAA/NESDIS/STAR Coral Reef Watch, College Park, MD, United States, (2)NOAA, Boulder, CO, United States, (3)NOAA, Coral Reef Watch, Townsville, QLD, Australia, (4)NOAA Coral Reef Watch-UMD_CICS, College Park, MD, United States, (5)NOAA College Park, College Park, MD, United States, (6)Global Science & Technology, Inc., Greenbelt, MD, United States
Abstract:
Anthropogenic climate change has caused an increase in the frequency and intensity of coral bleaching, mortality, and other impacts detrimental to the health and survival of coral reefs around the world. In 2014, a global-scale bleaching event, anticipated to last two years or more, began in the Pacific Ocean. Severe bleaching was documented in Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Hawaii, and the Marshall Islands, among other locations. By mid-2015, severe bleaching had reached many south Pacific Islands and islands of the central to eastern equatorial Pacific, especially Kiribati and Howland and Baker Islands. Bleaching followed in the Indian Ocean, and at the time of this writing is again striking Hawaii, and parts of the Caribbean. As the ongoing El Niño continues to strengthen, long-term outlooks suggest the cycle of bleaching will continue into 2016 in at least the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Caribbean bleaching may follow again in 2016 if this event follows historical patterns.
Warming of the global ocean, the El Niño, a new Pacific oceanic feature known as “The Blob”, and other patterns are imposing thermal stress capable of causing widespread negative impacts on reefs in many countries and archipelagos. If a subsequent La Niña follows, as is often the case, even more reefs will be subjected to stressful high temperatures. This is resulting in widespread bleaching, disease, and mortality at a frequency and intensity predicted in climate models nearly two decades ago. The question now is if we are seeing the onset of annually returning coral bleaching or if this is just a hint of conditions coming in future decades.
This presentation will discuss the latest information on the ongoing third global bleaching event and the impacts it may have on the biology, ecology, and potential for conservation and restoration of corals and coral reefs worldwide.
