The Fourth Global Coral Bleaching Event: Where do we go from here?

Reimer, James Davis; Peixoto, Raquel S.; Davies, Sarah W.; Traylor-Knowles, Nikki; Short, Morgan L.; Cabral-Tena, Rafael A.; Burt, John A.; Pessoa, Igor; Banaszak, Anastazia T.; Winters, R. Scott; Moore, Tom; Schoepf, Verena; Kaullysing, Deepeeka; Calderon-Aguilera, Luis E.; Wörheide, Gert; Harding, Simon; Munbodhe, Vikash; Mayfield, Anderson; Ainsworth, Tracy; Vardi, Tali; Eakin, C. Mark; Pratchett, Morgan S.; Voolstra, Christian R.

doi:10.1007/s00338-024-02504-w

Coral Reefs

2024

DOI: 10.1007/s00338-024-02504-w

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The Fourth Global Coral Bleaching Event: Where do we go from here?

James Davis Reimer,

Raquel S. Peixoto,

Sarah W. Davies

et al.

Abstract: The Fourth Global Coral Bleaching Event was officially confirmed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) on April 15, 2024, with press releases and a coordinated call to arms to address the impacts of climate change (https:// icrif orum. org/ 4gbe/). As the International Coral Reef Society (ICRS), the principal association of coral reef scientists, we would be remiss not to comment on this unfortunate milestone. Given our central role in the … Show more

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Cited by 13 publications

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Back-to-back bleaching events in Peninsular Malaysia (2019–2020) selectively affect hard coral taxa across- and within-reef scales

Szereday,

Voolstra,

Amri

2024

Mar Biol

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The impacts of (repeat) bleaching events and the differential heat stress susceptibility of hard coral taxa are largely unknown in Malaysia, although it is part of the greater coral triangle. Here we determined bleaching trajectories of 46 hard coral taxa across- and within-reef scales based on data recorded during the first reported back-to-back coral bleaching occurrences in Malaysia between May 2019 and September 2020. Although the severity of coral bleaching in both years did not correspond to the rather small magnitude of heat stress observed, i.e., Degree Heating Weeks (DHW) of 1.05 °C-weeks and 0 °C-weeks in 2019 and 2020 respectively, we observed high levels of bleaching (55.21% and 26.63% of all surveyed colonies in 2019 and 2020, respectively). Notably, the bleaching response for both consecutive years was highly taxon-specific and significantly varied across- and within-reef scales. Mortality rates overall were low following the 2019 event, likely due to a rapid decrease in heat stress. Five of the 46 surveyed hard coral taxa exhibited more severe bleaching in 2020, despite a lower heat stress load. Interestingly, we observed low bleaching of ascribed susceptible taxa such as Acropora and Montipora, while we found taxa considered to be resilient, e.g. Heliopora and Porites, to exhibit severe bleaching, suggesting a reversal of bleaching hierarchies of taxa over time. Our findings provide a foundation for further coral bleaching studies in a region with few published records to enable more accurate regional assessments and to follow the trajectory of future coral bleaching events.

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Back-to-back bleaching events in Peninsular Malaysia (2019–2020) selectively affect hard coral taxa across- and within-reef scales

Szereday,

Voolstra,

Amri

2024

Mar Biol

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Fitted Fv/Fm temperature response curves: applying lessons from plant ecophysiology to acute thermal stress experiments in coral holobionts

Gomez-Campo,

Baums

2024

Coral Reefs

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Maximum photochemical efficiency, Fv/Fm, is the preferred metric for quantifying the loss of photosystem II (PSII) function in photosynthetic algal symbionts (Symbiodiniaceae) of reef-building corals exposed to heat stress, particularly at the early stages of coral bleaching. Loss of PSII function can be quantified as the temperature at which a holobiont loses 50% of maximum photochemical efficiency (50% effective dose, or ED50) when exposed to a range of experimental temperatures. Here, we demonstrate that dose–response curves can be substantially more informative about a coral’s stress response by including ED5 (5% effective dose), ED95 (95% effective dose), and decline width (ED95–ED5) values in summary statistics. These parameters are commonly used in plant ecophysiology and can be extracted from fitted Fv/Fm temperature response curves. This suite of metrics provides a broader understanding of the loss of PSII function in acute thermal stress experiments in corals and could enhance comparability among coral and plant studies.

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Temporal shifts in algal and fish assemblages following the introduction of herbivorous species in coral reef patches (Bora Bora Island)

Raick,

Mery,

Carpentier

et al. 2024

Journal for Nature Conservation

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The Fourth Global Coral Bleaching Event: Where do we go from here?

Cited by 13 publications

References 21 publications

Back-to-back bleaching events in Peninsular Malaysia (2019–2020) selectively affect hard coral taxa across- and within-reef scales

Back-to-back bleaching events in Peninsular Malaysia (2019–2020) selectively affect hard coral taxa across- and within-reef scales

Fitted Fv/Fm temperature response curves: applying lessons from plant ecophysiology to acute thermal stress experiments in coral holobionts

Temporal shifts in algal and fish assemblages following the introduction of herbivorous species in coral reef patches (Bora Bora Island)

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