Comparing bleaching and mortality responses of hard corals between southern Kenya and the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

• Published in: Marine pollution bulletin 2004-02, Vol.48 (3), p.327-335
• Main Authors: McClanahan, T.R., Baird, A.H., Marshall, P.A., Toscano, M.A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 1998 El Niño; Acropora; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Animals; Anthozoa - physiology; Applied ecology; Australia; Australia, Great Barrier Reef; Biological and medical sciences; Bleaching; Classification; Climate; Climate change; Coral communities; Cyphastrea; Ecotoxicology, biological effects of pollution; Environmental Monitoring; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Galaxea; Goniopora; Kenya; Marine; Marine and brackish environment; Mortality; Pavona; Pigmentation; Pocillopora; Population Dynamics; Porites; Regional variation; Sea surface temperature; Stress; Stylophora; Temperature
• ISSN: 0025-326X; 1879-3363
• DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2003.08.024

We compared the bleaching and mortality response (BMI) of 19 common scleractinian corals to an anomalous warm-water event in 1998 to determine the degree of variation between depths, sites, and regions. Mombasa corals experienced a greater temperature anomaly than those on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) sites and this was reflected in the greater BMI response of most taxa. Comparing coral taxa in different sites at the same depth produced high correlation coefficients in the bleaching response in Kenya at 2 m ( r=0.86) and GBR at 6 m depth sites ( r=0.80) but less in the GBR for shallow 2 m sites ( r=0.49). The pattern of taxa susceptibility was remarkably consistent between the regions. Coral taxa explained 52% of the variation in the response of colonies to bleaching between these two regions (Kenya BMI = 0.90 GBR BMI + 26; F (1,19)=18.3; p