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The mass coral bleaching event of inshore corals form South China Sea witnessed in 2020: insight into the causes, process and consequence

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Abstract

In August to September 2020, severe sea surface temperature anomalies were recorded for Hainan Island and the Beibu Gulf from South China Sea (SCS) and at the same time an unprecedented mass coral event occurred there, spreading over the fringing reef along the Chinese mainland and around Hainan Island. Field surveys revealed that 81.08% of the 74 surveyed sites were bleached (average bleaching percentage 51.14%), exceeding the historical record for these areas. Percentage bleaching coincided with the cumulative time that corals were exposed to heat stress, as measured by Coral Reef Watch’s satellite Degree Heating Week (DHW). Geographically, western Hainan Island and Weizhou Island incurred more severe bleaching (56.27%) than did eastern Hainan Island (1.26%) even at the same latitude. Intriguingly, a generalized linear model with a binomial error structure demonstrated that DHW was a significant positive predictor of bleaching with 50% bleaching probability at 16.61 °C-weeks which suggested a higher DHW bleaching threshold. A strong negative correlation between DHW and coral cover as well as diversity was found. Further, coral community based on species composition at surveyed sites was dominated by massive/encrusting taxa Goniopora and Porites with high level of bleaching and in contrast genus Acropora showed a strong resistance to heat stress compared with other coral taxa. The follow-up in situ surveys in 2021 revealed there was no loss of coral cover during last year mass bleaching event and falling bleaching percentage was surprisingly observed despite under same level of thermal stress. These results suggest both transformation of coral reef assemblages and coral acclimation may play an important role in resisting extreme heat condition in SCS.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National investigation on coral reefs ecology (GASI-01-SHJDC), Hainan Provincial Key R&D Program (ZDYF2021SHFZ059). We are deeply grateful to the North Sea Marine Environmental Monitoring Center, State Oceanic Administration for help of some field work. The authors would like to thank the editor and reviewers for their assistance in the manuscript revision process.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. South China Sea Environmental Monitoring Center, State Oceanic Administration, Guangzhou, 510300, Guangdong Province, China

    Yihua Lyu, Zihua Zhou, Yangmei Zhang, Zhiqiang Chen, Wei Deng & Ronggui Shi

  2. Nansha Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Hainan, China

    Yihua Lyu, Zihua Zhou, Yangmei Zhang, Zhiqiang Chen, Wei Deng & Ronggui Shi

  3. Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Survey Technology and Application, Ministry of Natural Resources, Guangzhou, 510300, Guangdong Province, China

    Yihua Lyu, Zihua Zhou, Yangmei Zhang, Zhiqiang Chen, Wei Deng & Ronggui Shi

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  1. Yihua Lyu
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Lyu, Y., Zhou, Z., Zhang, Y. et al. The mass coral bleaching event of inshore corals form South China Sea witnessed in 2020: insight into the causes, process and consequence. Coral Reefs 41, 1351–1364 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-022-02284-1

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