A global analysis of coral bleaching over the past two decades

Thermal-stress events associated with climate change cause coral bleaching and mortality that threatens coral reefs globally. Yet coral bleaching patterns vary spatially and temporally. Here we synthesize field observations of coral bleaching at 3351 sites in 81 countries from 1998 to 2017 and use a suite of environmental covariates and temperature metrics to analyze bleaching patterns. Coral bleaching was most common in localities experiencing high intensity and high frequency thermal-stress anomalies. However, coral bleaching was significantly less common in localities with a high variance in sea-surface temperature (SST) anomalies. Geographically, the highest probability of coral bleaching occurred at…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Awards: 1657633, OCE 1657633, OCE 1829393, 1829393
• FI
  Florida Institute of Technology
• ZF
  Zegar Family Foundation
• NO
  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• NC
  National Centers for Environmental Information
• CR
  Coral Reef Conservation Program