Toggle Main Menu Toggle Search

Open Access padlockePrints

The Newcastle University research output collection, currently available on ePrints, will shortly be moving to a new open repository platform, Figshare. To prepare for the data migration we have paused adding new content to ePrints, and will resume once the new repository is launched. During this time you will continue to have access to ePrints (but no new content will appear). We will share updates here when available.

Unprecedented bleaching-induced mortality in Porites spp. at Rangiroa Atoll, French Polynesia

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Peter Mumby, Emeritus Professor Alasdair Edwards

Downloads

Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.

Abstract

In April-May 1998, mass coral bleaching was observed in the lagoon of Rangiroa Atoll, Tuamotu Archipelago, French Polynesia. Six months later, the extent of bleaching-induced coral mortality was assessed at three sites. Corals in the fast-growing genus Pocillopora had experienced > 99% mortality. Many large colonies of the slow-growing genus Porites (mean horizontal cross-sectional area 5.8 m2) had also died - a phenomenon not previously observed in French Polynesia and virtually unprecedented world-wide. At one site, 25% of colonies, or 44% of the pre-bleaching cover of living Porites, experienced whole-colony mortality. At the two other sites, recently dead Porites accounted for 41% and 82% of the pre-bleaching live cover. Mortality in Porites was negatively correlated with depth between 1.5 and 5 m. Using a 50-year dataset of mean monthly sea surface temperature (SST), derived from ship- and satellite-borne instruments, we show that bleaching occurred during a period of exceptionally high summer SST. 1998 was the first year in which mean monthly SSTs exceeded the 1961-1990 upper 95% confidence limit (29.4°C) for a period of three consecutive months. We suggest that the sustained 3-month anomaly in local summer SST was a major cause of coral mortality, but do not discount the synergistic effect of solar radiation. Recovery of the size-frequency distribution of Porites colonies to pre-bleaching levels may take at least 100 years.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Edwards AJ; Mumby PJ; Chisholm JRM; Clark CD; Roark EB; Andrefouet S; Jaubert J

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Marine Biology

Year: 2001

Volume: 139

Issue: 1

Pages: 183-189

Print publication date: 01/01/2001

ISSN (print): 0025-3162

ISSN (electronic): 1432-1793

Publisher: Springer

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s002270100575

DOI: 10.1007/s002270100575

Altmetrics

Altmetrics provided by Altmetric

Share