Eakin, Mark C.; Gang Liu; Andrea M. Gomez; Jacqueline L. De La Cour; Scott F. Heron; William J. Skirving; Erick F. Geiger; Kyle V. Tirak; Alan E. Strong

Global Coral Bleaching 2014-2017 Status and an Appeal for Observations

2016

Reef Encounter

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"In 2014 we wrote in 'Reef Encounter' about the prospect for a 2014-15 El Nino (Eakin et al. 2014). While that El Nino never fully formed, it helped set off the ongoing multi-year global coral bleaching event. A subsequent 2015-16 strong El Nino formed, spreading and worsening the bleaching, and has already caused bleaching in some areas two years in a row. As of April 2016, the current global coral bleaching event is the longest ever recorded. While it generally has not been as severe as the bleaching in 1998, it has affected more reefs than any previous global bleaching event and been worse in some locales (e.g. Great Barrier Reef, Kiribati), and thermal stress during this event has caused mass bleaching in several reefs that never bleached before."

FY2015 CRCP Project ID 915; Project Title: Coral Reef Watch: Satellite- and Model-Based Products for Coral Reef Ecosystem Managers; Principal Investigator: Mark Eakin