Coral bleaching in the southern inshore Great Barrier Reef: a case study from the Keppel Islands

2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma V. Kennedy ◽  
Alexandra Ordoñez ◽  
Guillermo Diaz-Pulido
Keyword(s):  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Coral Bleaching ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
The North ◽  
History Of ◽  
High Conservation ◽  
Recovery Dynamics ◽  
Southern Reef

Spatially explicit coral bleaching data can be used to improve our understanding of the causes and consequences of coral bleaching and help identify resilient reefs. In 2016, the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) experienced the most severe coral bleaching in recorded history, yet, as in previous 1998 and 2002 events, the severity and spatial extent of coral bleaching were variable. Cyclonic activity mitigated warming effects in the southern GBR, meaning corals in this region were predicted to bleach less; as a result, southern reef areas received little attention. Herein we report the effects of the 2016 warming event on southern inshore reefs around the Keppel Islands, an area of high conservation importance, with a history of environmental disturbance. Surveys of 14 reefs revealed paling of coral colonies at every site. A total of 21% of living coral, primarily Pocillopora and branching Acropora, was affected. Findings suggest that southern reefs were affected by warming, although significantly less than in the north. Records of milder bleaching help delineate variability in bleaching severity and extent across the GBR, and add to the historical record of bleaching history in the Keppel Islands, essential to understanding the complexity of exposure and recovery dynamics of the Keppel reefs.

scholarly journals An enigmatic decoupling between heat stress and coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e7473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas M. DeCarlo ◽  
Hugo B. Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Heat Stress ◽  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Coral Bleaching ◽  
Austral Summer ◽  
High Heat ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
Coral Reef Ecosystems ◽  
Mass Bleaching

Ocean warming threatens the functioning of coral reef ecosystems by inducing mass coral bleaching and mortality events. The link between temperature and coral bleaching is now well-established based on observations that mass bleaching events usually occur when seawater temperatures are anomalously high. However, times of high heat stress but without coral bleaching are equally important because they can inform an understanding of factors that regulate temperature-induced bleaching. Here, we investigate the absence of mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) during austral summer 2004. Using four gridded sea surface temperature data products, validated with in situ temperature loggers, we demonstrate that the summer of 2004 was among the warmest summers of the satellite era (1982–2017) on the GBR. At least half of the GBR experienced temperatures that were high enough to initiate bleaching in other years, yet mass bleaching was not reported during 2004. The absence of bleaching is not fully explained by wind speed or cloud cover. Rather, 2004 is clearly differentiated from bleaching years by the slow speed of the East Australian Current (EAC) offshore of the GBR. An anomalously slow EAC during summer 2004 may have dampened the upwelling of nutrient-rich waters onto the GBR shelf, potentially mitigating bleaching due to the lower susceptibility of corals to heat stress in low-nutrient conditions. Although other factors such as irradiance or acclimatization may have played a role in the absence of mass bleaching, 2004 remains a key case study for demonstrating the dynamic nature of coral responses to marine heatwaves.

scholarly journals An enigmatic decoupling between heat stress and coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas DeCarlo ◽  
Hugo B Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Heat Stress ◽  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Coral Bleaching ◽  
Austral Summer ◽  
High Heat ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
Coral Reef Ecosystems ◽  
Mass Bleaching

Ocean warming threatens the functioning of coral reef ecosystems by inducing mass coral bleaching and mortality events. The link between temperature and coral bleaching is now well-established based on observations that mass bleaching events usually occur when seawater temperatures are anomalously high. However, times of high heat stress but without coral bleaching are equally important because they can inform an understanding of factors that mitigate temperature-induced bleaching. Here, we investigate the absence of mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) during austral summer 2004. Using four gridded sea surface temperature (SST) data products, validated with in situ temperature loggers, we demonstrate that the summer of 2004 was among the warmest summers of the satellite era (1982-2017) on the GBR. At least half of the GBR experienced temperatures that were high enough to initiate bleaching in other years, yet mass bleaching was not reported during 2004. The absence of bleaching is not fully explained by wind speed or cloud cover. Rather, 2004 is clearly differentiated from bleaching years by the slow speed of the East Australian Current (EAC) offshore of the GBR. An anomalously slow EAC during summer 2004 may have dampened the upwelling of nutrient-rich waters onto the GBR shelf, potentially mitigating bleaching due to the lower susceptibility of corals to heat stress in low-nutrient conditions. Although other factors such as irradiance or acclimatization may have played a role in the absence of mass bleaching, 2004 remains a key case study for demonstrating the dynamic nature of coral responses to marine heatwaves.

scholarly journals An enigmatic decoupling between heat stress and coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas DeCarlo ◽  
Hugo B Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Heat Stress ◽  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Coral Bleaching ◽  
Austral Summer ◽  
High Heat ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
Coral Reef Ecosystems ◽  
Mass Bleaching

Ocean warming threatens the functioning of coral reef ecosystems by inducing mass coral bleaching and mortality events. The link between temperature and coral bleaching is now well-established based on observations that mass bleaching events usually occur when seawater temperatures are anomalously high. However, times of high heat stress but without coral bleaching are equally important because they can inform an understanding of factors that mitigate temperature-induced bleaching. Here, we investigate the absence of mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) during austral summer 2004. Using four gridded sea surface temperature (SST) data products, validated with in situ temperature loggers, we demonstrate that the summer of 2004 was among the warmest summers of the satellite era (1982-2017) on the GBR. At least half of the GBR experienced temperatures that were high enough to initiate bleaching in other years, yet mass bleaching was not reported during 2004. The absence of bleaching is not fully explained by wind speed or cloud cover. Rather, 2004 is clearly differentiated from bleaching years by the slow speed of the East Australian Current (EAC) offshore of the GBR. An anomalously slow EAC during summer 2004 may have dampened the upwelling of nutrient-rich waters onto the GBR shelf, potentially mitigating bleaching due to the lower susceptibility of corals to heat stress in low-nutrient conditions. Although other factors such as irradiance or acclimatization may have played a role in the absence of mass bleaching, 2004 remains a key case study for demonstrating the dynamic nature of coral responses to marine heatwaves.

Scales and Units

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn M. de Luna
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
The North ◽  
First Case ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
River Region ◽  
History Of ◽  
Alternative Approaches

This chapter uses two case studies to explore how historians study language movement and change through comparative historical linguistics. The first case study stands as a short chapter in the larger history of the expansion of Bantu languages across eastern, central, and southern Africa. It focuses on the expansion of proto-Kafue, ca. 950–1250, from a linguistic homeland in the middle Kafue River region to lands beyond the Lukanga swamps to the north and the Zambezi River to the south. This expansion was made possible by a dramatic reconfiguration of ties of kinship. The second case study explores linguistic evidence for ridicule along the Lozi-Botatwe frontier in the mid- to late 19th century. Significantly, the units and scales of language movement and change in precolonial periods rendered visible through comparative historical linguistics bring to our attention alternative approaches to language change and movement in contemporary Africa.

A new approach to the problem of overlapping values: A case study in Australia׳s Great Barrier Reef

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 61-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Stoeckl ◽  
Marina Farr ◽  
Silva Larson ◽  
Vanessa M. Adams ◽  
Ida Kubiszewski ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
New Approach

scholarly journals The role of clouds in coral bleaching events over the Great Barrier Reef

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenhui ZHAO ◽  
Yi HUANG ◽  
Steven T Siems ◽  
Michael J Manton
Keyword(s):  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Coral Bleaching ◽  
Barrier Reef

The Ecology and Distribution of Intertidal Organisms on Certain Islands off the Queensland Coast

1956 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 317 ◽  
Author(s):  
R Endean ◽  
W Stephenson ◽  
R Kenny
Keyword(s):  
Species Composition ◽  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Gradual Transition ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
Marine Fauna ◽  
The North ◽  
Specific Composition ◽  
Continental Islands ◽  
Longitudinal Division ◽  
Zonation Patterns

The species composition and general ecology of intertidal organisms present at Heron Island, a coral cay in the Capricorn Group, are recorded in this paper. It was found that the general zonation picture on this Great Barrier Reef island differed markedly from that found previously at localities on the Queensland mainland (Endean, Kenny, and Stephenson 1956). In particular the mainland upper barnacle (Chthamalus) zone was not represented at Heron I., and the species forming the mainland lower barnacle zone (Tetraclita squamosa (Bruguiere) ) was replaced by a different species (Tetraclita vitiata Darwin). Also the characteristic algal zone of mainland localities was replaced by a lithothamnion-zoanthid-coral zone. In order to investigate the possibility of a gradual transition from the mainland type zonation to that found on the Great Barrier Reef, as exemplified by Heron I. zonation, the species composition and general ecology of intertidal organisms inhabiting a series of continental islands lying off the Queensland coast between lat. 16� and 22� S. were investigated. The fauna of these islands was found to be closely allied to that of the mainland. There was, however, an intrusion of corals and zoanthids on the more exposed of the islands visited which lie between lat. 20� and 22�S., and also on the more northerly of the islands visited. The biogeographical implications of these findings are discussed, and it is noted that the results of the present investigation support the contention of Whitley (1932) that a longitudinal division of the Queensland marine fauna into "Solanderian" and "Banksian" elements is warranted. Accounts are also given of the major environmental factors that might affect specific composition and zonation patterns at the localities investigated. Analyses of these have given much information on the general ecology and distribution of many Queensland intertidal species. Thls information is discussed. Of particular interest was the finding that the Peronian barnacle Tetraclita rosea (Krauss) has extended its range,to the north of the biogeographical boundary situated near lat. 25� S. by colonizing the more exposed of the continental islands.

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