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Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Coral bleaching

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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Population Trajectory And Stressors Of Acropora Palmata Sites In The Florida Keys, Karen L. Neely, Kevin A. Macaulay, Kate S. Lunz Oct 2022

Population Trajectory And Stressors Of Acropora Palmata Sites In The Florida Keys, Karen L. Neely, Kevin A. Macaulay, Kate S. Lunz

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

The decline of elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata, has been ongoing for decades, but the causes of decline and the resulting population status continue to be topics of study. Past efforts to categorize stressors have ranged from spatially and/or temporally focused efforts that detect local stressors but may miss broader patterns to meta-analyses that identify large-scale trends but may not account for finer-scale variability. We here conduct an analysis of sites surveyed across five years (2010-2015) and much of the Florida Reef Tract in order to look at large-scale patterns while also accounting for site, habitat, seasonal, and annual variability. …


Further Flattening Of A Degraded, Turbid Reef System Following A Severe Coral Bleaching Event, Andrew G. Bauman, Fraser A. Januchowski-Hartley, Aaron Teo, Peter A. Todd Jul 2022

Further Flattening Of A Degraded, Turbid Reef System Following A Severe Coral Bleaching Event, Andrew G. Bauman, Fraser A. Januchowski-Hartley, Aaron Teo, Peter A. Todd

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Increasing incidence of severe coral bleaching events caused by climate change is contributing to extensive coral losses, shifts in species composition and widespread declines in the physical structure of coral reef ecosystems. With these ongoing changes to coral communities and the concomitant flattening of reef structural complexity, understanding the links between coral composition and structural complexity in maintaining ecosystem functions and processes is of critical importance. Here, we document the impacts of the 2016 global-scale coral bleaching event on seven coral reefs in Singapore; a heavily degraded, turbid reef system. Using a combination of field-based surveys, we examined changes in …


Physiological Integration Of Coral Colonies Is Correlated With Bleaching Resistance, Timothy D. Swain, Emily C. Bold, Phillip C. Osborn, Andrew H. Baird, Mark W. Westneat, Vadim Backman, Luisa A. Marcelino Jan 2018

Physiological Integration Of Coral Colonies Is Correlated With Bleaching Resistance, Timothy D. Swain, Emily C. Bold, Phillip C. Osborn, Andrew H. Baird, Mark W. Westneat, Vadim Backman, Luisa A. Marcelino

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Inter-module physiological integration of colonial organisms can facilitate colony-wide coordinated responses to stimuli that strengthen colony fitness and stress resistance. In scleractinian corals, whose colonial integration ranges from isolated polyps to a seamless continuum of polyp structures and functions, this coordination improves responses to injury, predation, disease, and stress and may be one of the indications of an evolutionary origin of Symbiodinium symbiosis. However, observations of species-specific coral bleaching patterns suggest that highly integrated coral colonies may be more susceptible to thermal stress, and support the hypothesis that communication pathways between highly integrated polyps facilitate the dissemination of toxic byproducts …


Skeletal Light-Scattering Accelerates Bleaching Response In Reef-Building Corals, Timothy D. Swain, Emily Dubois, Andrew Gomes, Valentina P. Stoyneva, Andrew J. Radosevich, Jillian Henss, Michelle E. Wagner, Justin Derbas, Hannah Grooms, Elizabeth M. Velazquez, Joshua Traub, Brian J. Kennedy, Arabela A. Grigorescu, Mark W. Westneat, Kevin Sanborn, Shoshana Levine, Mark Schick, George Parsons, Brendan C. Briggs, Jeremy D. Rogers, Vadim Backman, Luisa A. Marcelino Mar 2016

Skeletal Light-Scattering Accelerates Bleaching Response In Reef-Building Corals, Timothy D. Swain, Emily Dubois, Andrew Gomes, Valentina P. Stoyneva, Andrew J. Radosevich, Jillian Henss, Michelle E. Wagner, Justin Derbas, Hannah Grooms, Elizabeth M. Velazquez, Joshua Traub, Brian J. Kennedy, Arabela A. Grigorescu, Mark W. Westneat, Kevin Sanborn, Shoshana Levine, Mark Schick, George Parsons, Brendan C. Briggs, Jeremy D. Rogers, Vadim Backman, Luisa A. Marcelino

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Background At the forefront of ecosystems adversely affected by climate change, coral reefs are sensitive to anomalously high temperatures which disassociate (bleaching) photosynthetic symbionts (Symbiodinium) from coral hosts and cause increasingly frequent and severe mass mortality events. Susceptibility to bleaching and mortality is variable among corals, and is determined by unknown proportions of environmental history and the synergy of Symbiodinium- and coral-specific properties. Symbiodinium live within host tissues overlaying the coral skeleton, which increases light availability through multiple light-scattering, forming one of the most efficient biological collectors of solar radiation. Light-transport in the upper ~200 μm layer …


Remote Detection Of Coral 'Bleaching' Using Pulsed-Laser Fluorescence Spectroscopy, J. T. Hardy, F. E. Hoge, J. K. Yungel, Richard E. Dodge Nov 1992

Remote Detection Of Coral 'Bleaching' Using Pulsed-Laser Fluorescence Spectroscopy, J. T. Hardy, F. E. Hoge, J. K. Yungel, Richard E. Dodge

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Despite their biological and economic importance coral reefs are increasingly threatened by human activities. Recently, 'bleaching' of reefs, i.e. loss of photosynthetic pigmentation, has occurred at numerous globally-distributed sites. A number of environmental stressors, including increased water temperature, can induce bleaching. Several investigators have suggested that the widespread occurrence of coral bleaching represents an early warning signal of global greenhouse warming. Regardless of the cause, the extent of coral bleaching, both regionally and globally, needs to be documented and monitored. We conducted laboratory studies to evaluate the potential of using remotely-sensed laser-induced fluorescence to monitor coral pigmentation. Five species of …