1. The 2014-17 Global Coral Bleaching Event: The Most Severe and Widespread Coral Reef Destruction
- Author
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C. Mark Eakin, Denise Devotta, Scott Heron, Sean Connolly, Gang Liu, Erick Geiger, Jacqueline De La Cour, Andrea Gomez, William Skirving, Andrew Baird, Neal Cantin, Courtney Couch, Simon Donner, James Gilmour, Manuel Gonzalez-Rivero, Mishal Gudka, Hugo Harrison, Gregor Hodgson, Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Andrew Hoey, Mia Hoogenboom, Terry Hughes, Meaghan Johnson, James Kerry, Jennifer Mihaly, Aarón Muñiz-Castillo, David Obura, Morgan Pratchett, Andrea Rivera-Sosa, Claire Ross, Jennifer Stein, Angus Thompson, Gergely Torda, T. Shay Viehman, Cory Walter, Shaun Wilson, Benjamin Marsh, Blake Spady, Noel Dyer, Thomas Adam, Mahsa Alidoostsalimi, Parisa Alidoostsalimi, Lorenzo Alvarez-Filip, Mariana Álvarez-Noriega, Keisha Bahr, Peter Barnes, José Barraza Sandoval, Julia Baum, Andrew Bauman, Maria Beger, Kathryn Berry, Pia Bessell-Browne, Lionel Bigot, Victor Bonito, Ole Brodnicke, David Burdick, Deron Burkepile, April Burt, John Burt, Ian Butler, Jamie Caldwell, Yannick Chancerelle, Chaolun Allen Chen, Kah-Leng Cherh, Michael Childress, Darren Coken, Georgia Coward, M. James Crabbe, Thomas Dallison, Steve Dalton, Thomas DeCarlo, Crawford Drury, Ian Drysdale, Clinton Edwards, Linda Eggertsen, Eylem Elma, Rosmin Ennis, Richard Evans, Gal Eyal, Douglas Fenner, Baruch Figueroa-Zavala, Jay Fisch, Michael Fox, Elena Gadoutsis, Antoine Gilbert, Andrew Halford, Tom Heintz, James Hewlett, Jean-Paul A. Hobbs, Whitney Hoot, Peter Houk, Lyza Johnston, Michelle Johnston, Hajime Kayanne, Emma Kennedy, Ruy Kikuchi, Ulrike Kloiber, Haruko Koike, Lindsey Kramer, Chao-Yang Kuo, Judy Lang, Abigail Leadbeater, Zelinda Leão, Jen Lee, Cynthia Lewis, Diego Lirman, Guilherme Longo, Chancey MacDonald, Sangeeta Mangubhai, Isabel da Silva, Christophe Mason-Parker, Vanessa McDonough, Melanie McField, Thayná Mello, Celine Miternique - Agathe, Stephan Moldzio, Alison Monroe, Monica Montefalcone, Kevin Moses, Pargol Ghavam Mostafavi, Rodrigo Moura, Chathurika Munasinghe, Takashi Nakamura, Jean-Benoit Nicet, Marissa Nuttall, Marilia Oliveira, Hazel Oxenford, John Pandolfi, Vardhan Patankar, Denise Perez, Nishan Perera, Derta Prabuning, William Precht, K. Diraviya Raj, James Reimer, Laura Richardson, Randi Rotjan, Nicole Ryan, Rod Salm, Stuart Sandin, Stephanie Schopmeyer, Mohammad Shokri, Jennifer Smith, Kylie Smith, S. R. Smith, Tyler Smith, Brigitte Sommer, Melina Soto, Helen Sykes, Kelley Tagarino, Marianne Teoh, Minh Thai, Tai Toh, Alex Tredinnick, Alex Tso, Harriet Tyley, Ali Ussi, Christian Vaterlaus, Mark Vermeij, Si Tuan Vo, Christian Voolstra, Hin Boo Wee, Bradley Weiler, Saleh Yahya, Thamasak Yeemin, Maren Ziegler, Tadashi Kimura, and Derek Manzello
- Abstract
Ocean warming is increasing the incidence, scale, and severity of global-scale coral bleaching and mortality, culminating in the third global coral bleaching event that occurred during record marine heatwaves of 2014-2017. While local effects of these events have been widely reported, the global implications remain unknown. Analysis of 15,066 reef surveys during 2014-2017 revealed that 80% of surveyed reefs experienced significant coral bleaching and 35% experienced significant coral mortality. The global extent of significant coral bleaching and mortality was assessed by extrapolating results from reef surveys using comprehensive remote-sensing data of regional heat stress. This model predicted that 51% of the world’s coral reefs suffered significant bleaching and 15% significant mortality, surpassing damage from any prior global bleaching event. These observations demonstrate that global warming’s widespread damage to coral reefs is accelerating and underscores the threat anthropogenic climate change poses for the irreversible transformation of these essential ecosystems.
- Published
- 2022