SPACES team members, Tim McClanahan and Nyawira Muthiga have used SPACES coral reef survey data in an analysis of the factors affecting coral’s susceptibility to coral bleaching in the face of warmer climates.
The analysis based on surveys from E. Africa to Fiji during the 2016 El Nino event showed that bleaching is caused by a range of stressors on reefs.
In terms of geography, the researchers found that bleaching depended greatly on where the corals lived along the longitudinal gradient from East Africa to Fiji. Worryingly for E. African coastal states, their reefs appeared to show the strongest bleaching response to heat stress.
A longer write up of the article can be found here:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191002165228.htm
And the full reference for the study, in Nature Climate Change is here:
Tim R. McClanahan, Emily S. Darling, Joseph M. Maina, Nyawira A. Muthiga, Stéphanie D ’agata, Stacy D. Jupiter, Rohan Arthur, Shaun K. Wilson, Sangeeta Mangubhai, […]