Nitrogen pollution interacts with heat stress to increase coral bleaching across the seascape.

ABSTRACT: Climate change is increasing the frequency and magnitude of temperature anomalies that cause coral bleaching, leading to widespread mortality of stony corals that can fundamentally alter reef structure and function. However, bleaching often is spatially variable for a given heat stress event, and drivers of this heterogeneity are not well resolved. While small-scale experiments have shown that excess nitrogen can increase the susceptibility of a coral colony to bleaching, we lack evidence that heterogeneity in nitrogen pollution can shape spatial patterns of coral bleaching across a seascape. Using island-wide surveys of coral bleaching and nitrogen availability within a Bayesian hierarchical modeling framework, we tested the hypothesis that excess nitrogen interacts with temperature anoma

SUBMITTER: Donovan MK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7071909 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature