Susceptibility of central Red Sea corals during a major bleaching event
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Susceptibility of central Red Sea corals during a major bleaching event K. A. Furby • J. Bouwmeester • M. L. Berumen
Received: 18 April 2012 / Accepted: 11 December 2012 Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
Abstract A major coral bleaching event occurred in the central Red Sea near Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, in the summer of 2010, when the region experienced up to 10–11 degree heating weeks. We documented the susceptibility of various coral taxa to bleaching at eight reefs during the peak of this thermal stress. Oculinids and agaricids were most susceptible to bleaching, with up to 100 and 80 % of colonies of these families, respectively, bleaching at some reefs. In contrast, some families, such as mussids, pocilloporids, and pectinids showed low levels of bleaching (\20 % on average). We resurveyed the reefs 7 months later to estimate subsequent mortality. Mortality was highly variable among taxa, with some taxa showing evidence of full recovery and some (e.g., acroporids) apparently suffering nearly complete mortality. The unequal mortality among families resulted in significant change in community composition following the bleaching. Significant factors in the likelihood of coral bleaching during this event
Communicated by Biology Editor Dr. Hugh Sweatman
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00338-012-0998-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. K. A. Furby (&) Marine Biology Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 9500 Gilman Dr, La Jolla, CA 92093-0202, USA e-mail: [email protected] J. Bouwmeester M. L. Berumen Red Sea Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Jeddah 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia M. L. Berumen Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 266 Woods Hole Rd, Woods Hole, MA 02543-1050, USA
were depth of the reef and distance of the reef from shore. Shallow reefs and inshore reefs had a higher prevalence of bleaching. This bleaching event shows that Red Sea reefs are subject to the same increasing pressures that reefs face worldwide. This study provides a quantitative, genus-level assessment of the vulnerability of various coral groups from within the Red Sea to bleaching and estimates subsequent mortality. As such, it can provide valuable insights into the future for reef communities in the Red Sea. Keywords Coral bleaching Mortality Red Sea Saudi Arabia Sea surface temperature Susceptibility
Introduction Anomalous temperatures of even 1 °C higher than average summer sea surface temperature (SST) can trigger coral bleaching (Glynn 1991; Goreau and Hayes 1994; HoeghGuldberg 1999). Alarmingly, the frequency of bleaching events and mortalities has increased dramatically since 1979 (Glynn 1993; Hoegh-Guldberg 1999). However, coral species vary in their susceptibility to bleaching and subsequent rates of mortality (e.g., Marshall and Baird 2000; McClanahan et al. 2004), and understanding the patterns of bleaching susceptibility i
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