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Back-to-back coral bleaching events on isolated atolls in the Coral Sea

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Abstract

Severe bleaching events caused by marine heat waves over the past four decades have now affected almost every coral reef ecosystem in the world. These recurring events have led to major losses of coral cover, with adverse consequences for tropical reef ecosystems and the people who depend on them. Here, we document two consecutive and widespread coral bleaching events on remote atolls in the Coral Sea in 2016 and 2017. In each year, the proportion of colonies that bleached was strongly related to heat exposure (measured as degree heating weeks, DHW, °C-weeks), depth and coral assemblage structure. Bleaching was more severe at higher DHW exposure and at sites with a higher proportion of susceptible taxa. Bleaching was also lower at 6 m than at 2 m depth. Despite the severe bleaching in 2016 on reefs in the central section of the Coral Sea Marine Park, total coral cover was not significantly reduced by 2017, suggesting that most bleached corals survived. Moreover, bleaching was less severe in 2017 despite a higher exposure to heat stress. These results indicate that while the isolation of these oceanic reefs provides no refuge from bleaching, low nutrient levels, high wave energy and proximity to cooler deeper waters may make coral on these reefs more resistant to bleaching-induced mortality.

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This research was conducted under James Cook University Ethics permit A2273.

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Acknowledgements

This research was jointly funded by the Director of National Parks, Australia, an ACR Discovery Early Career Research Award to HBH (DE160101141) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. This research was conducted in the Coral Sea Marine Park under Permit No. CMR-16-000394 and CMR-16-000443. The authors wish to thank the relevant staff at Parks Australia, with particular mention given to Andy Warmbrunn, Jennifer Hoy, Bianca Priest, Samantha Fox and Jason Mundy. We thank Cpt Peter Sayre, Glenn Percy and the crew of the MV Phoenix for their assistance in the field. We are grateful to Thomas DeCarlo for producing Fig. 1b, c and two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments. The findings and views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Parks Australia, the Director of National Parks or the Australian Government. The scientific results and conclusions, as well as any views or opinions expressed herein, are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of NOAA or the US Department of Commerce.

Funding

Funding was provided by the Director of National Parks, Parks Australia, an ACR Discovery Early Career Research Award to H.B.H. (DE160101141) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia

    Hugo B. Harrison, Mariana Álvarez-Noriega, Andrew H. Baird, Chancey MacDonald & Terry P. Hughes

  2. College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia

    Mariana Álvarez-Noriega & Chancey MacDonald

  3. Coral Reef Watch, US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, College Park, MD, 20740, USA

    Scott F. Heron

  4. ReefSense, Townsville, QLD, 4814, Australia

    Scott F. Heron

  5. Marine Geophysical Laboratory, College of Science, Technology and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia

    Scott F. Heron

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  1. Hugo B. Harrison
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  2. Mariana Álvarez-Noriega
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  3. Andrew H. Baird
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  4. Scott F. Heron
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  5. Chancey MacDonald
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  6. Terry P. Hughes
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Contributions

M.A.-N., A.H.B., H.B.H. and C.MacD. collected the field observations and S.F.H. collated the NOAA temperature data; A.H.B. and H.B.H. planned the study, and all authors analysed the data and wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Hugo B. Harrison.

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Harrison, H.B., Álvarez-Noriega, M., Baird, A.H. et al. Back-to-back coral bleaching events on isolated atolls in the Coral Sea. Coral Reefs 38, 713–719 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-018-01749-6

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