Mass coral mortality under local amplification of 2°C ocean warming
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Mass coral mortality.pdf
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Author(s)
Cohen, Anne L.
Wong, George T. F.
Davis, Kristen A.
Lohmann, Pat
Soong, Keryea
DeCarlo, Thomas Mario
Date Issued
March 2017
Journal
Scientific Reports
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Citation
DeCarlo, Thomas M.; Cohen, Anne L.; Wong, George T. F.; Davis, Kristen A.; Lohmann, Pat and Soong, Keryea. “Mass Coral Mortality Under Local Amplification of 2 °C Ocean Warming.” Scientific Reports 7 (March 2017): 44586 © 2017 The Author(s)
Version
Final published version
Abstract
A 2 °C increase in global temperature above pre-industrial levels is considered a reasonable target for avoiding the most devastating impacts of anthropogenic climate change. In June 2015, sea surface temperature (SST) of the South China Sea (SCS) increased by 2 °C in response to the developing Pacific El Niño. On its own, this moderate, short-lived warming was unlikely to cause widespread damage to coral reefs in the region, and the coral reef “Bleaching Alert” alarm was not raised. However, on Dongsha Atoll, in the northern SCS, unusually weak winds created low-flow conditions that amplified the 2 °C basin-scale anomaly. Water temperatures on the reef flat, normally indistinguishable from open-ocean SST, exceeded 6 °C above normal summertime levels. Mass coral bleaching quickly ensued, killing 40% of the resident coral community in an event unprecedented in at least the past 40 years. Our findings highlight the risks of 2 °C ocean warming to coral reef ecosystems when global and local processes align to drive intense heating, with devastating consequences.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/srep44586
