Subject Area
Biology
Description
Coral reef bleaching can happen for many different reasons including storms, disease, sediment and salinity changes, and of change in climate. Mass bleaching is typically a cause of increasing sea temperature in a certain area. Mass bleaching typically kills off many different species of coral. This is detrimental to a large portion of biodiversity, especially in a marine atmosphere. In 2016, records show that it is a record high ocean temperature which led to widespread coral bleaching on Australian reefs. This was part of the third global bleaching event declared by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). At the time it was the highest ocean temperatures have been. (Since then, there has been 2 more large bleaching events.) During this bleaching, intensity varied from 10% to 90% of coral cover being destroyed among different reefs. More than 60% of coral cover was destroyed at 38% of surveyed reefs. Coral mortality was highest in the northern section, where heat stress was more intense. In early 2017, the central third of the Great Barrier Reef experienced severe coral bleaching due to unusually high sea surface temperatures and prolonged heat stress. This consecutive bleaching event in 2016 and 2017 was unparalleled, impacting two-thirds of the reef. However, the southern part of the reef managed to evade significant heat stress and bleaching during both years. 2018 was not a reported mass bleaching event, instead used as a recovery period where the tracked coral coverage can be shown as an increase of cover. BIO 340 final project
Publisher
Providence College
Date
Spring 5-2-2024
Type
Poster
Format
Text
.pdf (text under image)
Language
English
