[Coral-List] GBR Corals Have Not Been Bleaching Regularly for 400 years

[Mark Eakin - NOAA Federal]

New paper now out in Frontiers of Marine Science

"Abstract"
Kamenos and Hennige (2018, hereafter KH18), claimed to show that mass coral
bleaching is not a recent phenomenon, and has occurred regularly over the
past four centuries (1572–2001) on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Australia.
They support their claim by developing a putative proxy for coral bleaching
that uses the suggested relationship between elevated sea surface
temperatures (SSTs) and reduced linear extension rates of 44 Porites spp.
coral cores from 28 GBR reefs. There are, however, major flaws in the KH18
methodology that are reviewed in this paper. The many serious flaws in KH18
severely destroy its value as a contribution to understanding climate
change impacts on coral reefs. Given these major problems, we respectfully
call for KH18 to be withdrawn.

You can find the full paper at
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2019.00086/full
Commentary: Reconstructing Four Centuries of Temperature-Induced Coral
Bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef A Commentary on Reconstructing Four
Centuries of Temperature-Induced Coral Bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, William J. Skirving, Janice M. Lough, Chunying Liu,
Michael E. Mann, Simon Donner, C. Mark Eakin, Neal Cantin, Jessica Carilli,
Scott Fraser Heron, Sonya Miller and Sophie Dove. March 2019 Frontiers in
Marine Science 6:86. DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2019.00086


Cheers,
Mark

-- 

C. Mark Eakin, Ph.D.
Coordinator, 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
Twitter: @CoralReefWatch FB: Coral Reef Watch

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