Mass coral mortality under local amplification of 2°C ocean warming
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 Paci...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Nature Publishing Group
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110106 |
| _version_ | 1811073606358138880 |
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| author | Cohen, Anne L. Wong, George T. F. Davis, Kristen A. Lohmann, Pat Soong, Keryea DeCarlo, Thomas Mario |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Cohen, Anne L. Wong, George T. F. Davis, Kristen A. Lohmann, Pat Soong, Keryea DeCarlo, Thomas Mario |
| author_sort | Cohen, Anne L. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:35:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/110106 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:35:38Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1101062022-09-30T15:32:07Z Mass coral mortality under local amplification of 2°C ocean warming Cohen, Anne L. Wong, George T. F. Davis, Kristen A. Lohmann, Pat Soong, Keryea DeCarlo, Thomas Mario Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution DeCarlo, Thomas Mario 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. 2017-06-21T14:05:06Z 2017-06-21T14:05:06Z 2017-03 2016-09 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2045-2322 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110106 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) en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep44586 Scientific Reports Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Nature Publishing Group Nature |
| spellingShingle | Cohen, Anne L. Wong, George T. F. Davis, Kristen A. Lohmann, Pat Soong, Keryea DeCarlo, Thomas Mario Mass coral mortality under local amplification of 2°C ocean warming |
| title | Mass coral mortality under local amplification of 2°C ocean warming |
| title_full | Mass coral mortality under local amplification of 2°C ocean warming |
| title_fullStr | Mass coral mortality under local amplification of 2°C ocean warming |
| title_full_unstemmed | Mass coral mortality under local amplification of 2°C ocean warming |
| title_short | Mass coral mortality under local amplification of 2°C ocean warming |
| title_sort | mass coral mortality under local amplification of 2°c ocean warming |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110106 |
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