The purpose of these bleaching tutorial modules is to introduce some tools used to pinpoint areas around the world where corals are presently at risk for bleaching.
A global inventory of coral reef stressors based on satellite observed nighttime lights
"In this article, we present a satellite-based approach to gather information about the threat to coral reefs worldwide. Three chosen reef stressors - development, gas flaring and heavily lit fishing boat activity - are analysed using nighttime lights dat...
A comparison of the 1998 and 2002 coral bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef: Spatial correlation, patterns, and predictions
"Detailed mapping of coral bleaching events provides an opportunity to examine spatial patterns in bleaching over scales of 10 s to 1,000 s of km and the spatial correlation between sea surface temperature (SST) and bleaching. We present data for two larg...
Climate change influences on marine infectious diseases: Implications for management and society
"Infectious diseases are common in marine environments, but the effects of a changing climate on marine pathogens are not well understood. Here we review current knowledge about how the climate drives host-pathogen interactions and infectious disease outb...
"Coral reefs are one of the worlds most biologically diverse and productive ecosystems. However, these valuable resources are highly threatened by human activities. Satellite remotely sensed observations enhance our understanding of coral reefs and some o...
Caribbean corals in crisis: Record thermal stress, bleaching, and mortality in 2005
"Background: The rising temperature of the world's oceans has become a major threat to coral reefs globally as the severity and frequency of mass coral bleaching and mortality events increase. In 2005, high ocean temperatures in the tropical Atlantic and ...
Lamarck was partially right - and that is good for corals
"Ocean warming is one of the most urgent threats to coral reefs (13). Some taxa may migrate in response to changing environmental conditions (4), but corals and other sessile organisms only migrate through larval movement (5). This is viable for coral spe...
Satellite observation of Keppel Islands (Great Barrier Reef) 2002 Coral Bleaching Using IKONOS Data
"An examination of IKONOS satellite imagery of the Keppel Islands (Great Barrier Reef) acquired before and during a coral bleaching event indicates that severe bleaching of reefs can be detected as an increase in brightness in the band 1 (blue) and band 2...
ReefTemp Next Generation: A new operational system for monitoring reef thermal stress
"The expected increase in the frequency of mass coral bleaching under climate change underlines the importance of thermal stress monitoring systems for coral reef management. ReefTemp Next Generation (RTNG) is a sophisticated remote sensing application de...
Contrasting futures for ocean and society from different anthropogenic CO2 emissions scenarios
"The ocean moderates anthropogenic climate change at the cost of profound alterations of its physics, chemistry, ecology, and services. Here, we evaluate and compare the risks of impacts on marine and coastal ecosystems - and the goods and services they p...
Satellites and Bleaching