[Coral-List] Requesting Data on 2005 Caribbean Bleaching
Mark Eakin
Mark.Eakin at noaa.gov
Tue Dec 6 12:10:10 EST 2005
Many of you have seen either previous e-mails or have been cross-
listed on this one. I apologize for cross-listing, but we need to get
information out as widely as possible.
As you know, high ocean temperatures in 2005 have resulted in a major
coral bleaching event that is underway in the Caribbean, and may
result in significant coral death in much of the region. Thermal
stress has reached Degree Heating Week (DHWs) values of over 15 at
some locations. Bleaching reports have been coming in from much of
the Caribbean and western North Atlantic. The US Coral Reef Task
Force (USCRTF) passed a resolution in Palau calling for mobilizing
efforts across the region to monitor and assess short- and long-term
impacts of the 2005 Caribbean warming and bleaching event. The
USCRTF Bleaching Committee has held conference calls to bring
together and solicit input from NOAA and DOI personnel, as well as
other federal agencies, NGO partners, and local Caribbean scientists
and managers. The NOAA points of contact are Dr. Mark Eakin (NESDIS)
and Dr. Tom Hourigan (NMFS). The outcomes of the initial meetings
include the development of a 3-phase response approach (including an
initial response, near-term reporting and assessment, and long-term
monitoring) and identification of key partners, resources, and
issues. More details about how we reached this point are found in
documents on the website (below).
A part of the first phase is to identify and assess bleaching
severity throughout the region. I am collating these reports with
the plan to produce a multi-author, quick paper to Science or Nature
that documents the event. From there, I am sure that more
publications will follow. Everyone who provides data that are used
in the analysis of the event will be included as an author on the
resulting paper(s). Our intent is to provide the broad, Caribbean-
wide analysis, comparing the thermal stress recorded from satellites
with local observations of bleaching and temperatures. That
publication will only include summaries of the information that you
submit. We hope that all of our collaborators will produce more
detailed national or local analyses to further document the event.
To collect the details needed for the first analysis and to establish
a baseline for follow-up work, a spreadsheet questionnaire has been
developed for bleaching reports. We will be sending this to everyone
that has submitted reports to ReefBase or Coral-List as well as
numerous contacts throughout the region. The form, along with
information from the US Coral Reef Task Force, NOAA meetings held to
date, and more, are available for download at the website http://
coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/caribbean2005.
Please download the questionnaire (an Excel file) and submit any data
that you have to coralreefwatch at noaa.gov. As you will see from the
form, some of the information that we are requesting is not found on
the ReefBase form. All of your responses will be coordinated with
ReefBase unless you indicate otherwise. Please note that we are only
seeking quantitative reports for this analysis. Casual reports of
bleaching (as well as quantitative reports) can still be submitted to
the ReefBase-NOAA reporting site at http://www.reefbase.org/input/
bleachingreport/index.asp). I apologize for the informality of this
broad e-mail, but everything is moving very quickly and we need to
publish an assessment of the event very soon.
By the way, we are also discussing a special session on this for the
ITMEMS-3 meeting next year. Since it will be in Cozumel October
2006, the location and timing would be perfect to bring us all
together (http://www.icriforum.org/itmems3/itmems.html).
Please feel free to pass this along to appropriate colleagues. We
look forward to your help in assessing this event.
Thanks to all of you for your help,
Mark
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------
C. Mark Eakin, Ph.D.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Center for Satellite Applications and Research
Satellite Oceanography & Climate Division
e-mail: mark.eakin at noaa.gov
url: coralreefwatch.noaa.gov
E/RA31, SSMC1, Room 5306
1335 East West Hwy
Silver Spring, MD 20910-3226
301-713-2857 x109 Fax: 301-713-3136
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