[Coral-List] bleaching in Australia

Héctor Reyes Bonilla hreyes at uabcs.mx
Tue Mar 22 13:12:10 EDT 2016


hello everyone.  I write this because I read yesterday in a mexican
newspaper that corals were all dead in the northern gbr (the journalist
thought that all bleached corals are dead already).

I have a simple comment and (positive) word of caution from what we
observed all along western mexico (from the gulf of california 25N, to
oaxaca 16N). last year, the enso caused a sst increase of at least 2°C for
several months, but conditions are more akin to normal now.

after looking at the predictions, we sincerely believed that bleaching
would be intense and mortality would be similar to that observed in 1997.
we were right in one thing, wrong in another. bleaching did occur
practically in every important reef (from july to november we saw white
colonies): alas, field evaluations this spring all over the region shows us
that corals resisted very well the event, and mortailty did not exceed 10%
in any area that we have surveyed. we believe that this is a clear evidence
of adaptation, after the bleaching-caused mortalities of 1997 (see
LaJeunesse et al 2010 paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B),
 but in particular as a result of the more localized but intense
sst-induced damages in 2010 and 2012.

in short, it is possible that we are witnessing natural selection at work
here, driven by the intense temperature stress. but corals are passing the
test!

would something like this will occur in australia?

ps. the observations were made by me, andres lopez, amilcar cupul, pedro
medina, arturo ayala, emilio michel, and our students and colleagues.

Hector Reyes
UABCS, La Paz

2016-03-19 16:25 GMT-07:00 Hughes, Terry <terry.hughes at jcu.edu.au>:

> Dear Coral-List
>
> Unfortunately, the northern section of the Great Barrier Reef is now
> severely bleached. In preparation for the risk of coral bleaching, we
> convened the National Coral Bleaching Network last November to plan a
> coordinated response across Australia's research and reef management
> community. The ARC Centre has allocated approximately $1million to respond
> to the 2016 bleaching on the GBR and elsewhere on tropical and sub-tropical
> reefs around Australia. We're focussing on the GBR, the Coral Sea, coastal
> and offshore reefs in WA, and sub-tropical reefs on both the east and west
> coast.
>
> In the next few days, I'll conduct ten aerial transects (3-6 hour flights)
> throughout the 1000km region between Cairns and PNG that is most severely
> impacted by bleaching. Thereafter, we plan to expand these surveys to cover
> elsewhere in the GBR Marine Park south of Cairns. To eliminate
> observer-bias, the aerial surveys in Queensland will be conducted by myself
> and James Kerry.
>
> We have relocated JCU's research vessel, the Kirby, from Townsville to
> Cairns, and it will operate from today in the northern GBR and Torres
> Strait for the next month. It will be joined shortly by two other vessels
> from the ARC Centre and the Australian Institute for Marine Science (AIMS).
> The GBR research stations, on Lizard and Orpheus Island in particular, are
> also fully engaged in the bleaching event. We are working very closely with
> the GBR Marine Park Authority and other management agencies in QLD, NSW and
> WA.
>
> Thankfully, the southern GBR looks to be in the clear.
>
> Members of Taskforce (and associated organisations):
>
> Terry Hughes (ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies; James Cook
> University)
> Russ Babcock (CSIRO)
> Maria Byrne (University of Sydney)
> James Gilmour (AIMS Perth)
> Scott Heron (NOAA, Townsville)
> Ove Hoegh-Guldberg (ARC Centre, University of Queensland)
> Janice Lough (AIMS Townsville)
> Ryan Lowe (ARC Centre; University of Western Australia)
> John Pandolfi (ARC Centre; University of Queensland)
> David Wachenfeld (GBRMPA)
> Shaun Wilson (DPaW)
> James Kerry (ARC Centre; Project Manager)
>
>
> Cheers, Terry
>
> Professor Terry Hughes FAA
> ARC Laureate Fellow
> Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
> James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811
> Australia
>
> Link to Terry Hughes Google Scholar profile<
> http://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=MhJ2LfsAAAAJ>
>
> Email: terry.hughes at jcu.edu.au<mailto:terry.hughes at jcu.edu.au>
> Phone: 61 (0)7 4781 4000
> Website: http://www.coralcoe.org.au/postdocs/terry-hughes
>
> ABC RN Breakfast: Interview on coral bleaching
> http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/widespread-coral-bleaching-detected-on-the/7212760
>
> _______________________________________________
> Coral-List mailing list
> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>



-- 
Héctor Reyes Bonilla
Departamento Académico de Biología Marina
Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur
Carretera al sur km 5.5. Col. El Mezquitito
La Paz, B.C.S., C.P. 23080.
Tel. (52-612) 123-8800, ext. 4814
Fax (52-612) 123-8819.


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