Summer hot snaps and winter conditions: modelling white syndrome outbreaks on Great Barrier Reef corals.

ABSTRACT: Coral reefs are under increasing pressure in a changing climate, one such threat being more frequent and destructive outbreaks of coral diseases. Thermal stress from rising temperatures has been implicated as a causal factor in disease outbreaks observed on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, and elsewhere in the world. Here, we examine seasonal effects of satellite-derived temperature on the abundance of coral diseases known as white syndromes on the Great Barrier Reef, considering both warm stress during summer and deviations from mean temperatures during the preceding winter. We found a high correlation (r(2) = 0.953) between summer warm thermal anomalies (Hot Snap) and disease abundance during outbreak events. Inclusion of thermal conditions during the preceding winter revealed that a s

SUBMITTER: Heron SF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2923161 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature