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Projected coral bleaching in response to future sea surface temperature rises and the uncertainties among climate models

  • BIODIVERSITY IN ASIAN COASTAL WATERS
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Abstract

We quantitatively evaluated the effects of rising sea surface temperature (SST) on coral bleaching and the uncertainties resulting from differences in global warming projections. To do so, we used monthly SSTs in the twenty-first century obtained from 23 climate models under the A1B scenario (from the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios) and SST-based indices for coral bleaching. All of the projections indicated that severe bleaching or death of corals will be common and severe in wide areas of the tropical and subtropical oceans by the middle of this century. However, decadal oscillation could modify the exact timing by around ±10 years. Such projections are important for conserving marine biodiversity and designing future strategies to avoid tropical and subtropical coral extinction. To obtain more reliable projections and reduce uncertainties, climate models should be improved by using higher spatiotemporal resolutions, and more realistic biological indices should be embedded into existing models.

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Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate the helpful comments of two anonymous reviewers. We thank the modeling groups, the Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison (PCMDI), and the WCRP’s Working Group on Coupled Modelling (WGCM) for their roles in making the WCRP phase 3 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP3) multi-model dataset available. Support for this dataset was provided by the Office of Science of the US Department of Energy. This study was supported by the Global Environment Research Fund (S-5 and S-9) of the Ministry of the Environment, Program for Risk Information on Climate Change of Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan, and Hokkaido University’s Sustainable Low Carbon Society Project.

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Guest editors: M. Tokeshi & H. T. Yap / Biodiversity in Changing Coastal Waters of Tropical and Subtropical Asia

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Yara, Y., Fujii, M., Yamano, H. et al. Projected coral bleaching in response to future sea surface temperature rises and the uncertainties among climate models. Hydrobiologia 733, 19–29 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-014-1838-0

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