Abstract
This study reports on the deepest records (~ 24 m depth) of coral bleaching in a naturally temperature-stable environment (> 26 °C with an intra-annual variability of ~ 2 °C), which was recorded during a mass bleaching event in the locally dominant, massive scleractinian coral Siderastrea stellata in equatorial waters of Brazil (SW Atlantic). An inter-annual analysis (2002–2017) indicated that this bleaching event was related to anomalies in sea surface temperature (SST) that led to the warmest year (2010) in this century (1 to 1.7 °C above average). Such anomalies caused heat stress (28.5–29.5 °C) in this equatorial environment that resulted in a bleaching event. Our results suggest that the increase in SST, low turbidity, and weak winds may have acted together to affect these stress-tolerant corals in marginal reefs. The equatorial coastline of Brazil is characterized by low intra-annual and inter-annual variations in SST, which suggests that the S. stellata corals here may be acclimatized to these stable conditions and, consequently, have a lower bleaching threshold because of lower historical heat stress.
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Acknowledgments
We appreciate the constructive comments made by two anonymous reviewers on the manuscript.
Funding
Financial support was provided by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico — CNPq (Grants 233808/2014-0 and 307061/2017), CAPES-PRINT Program, Projeto CORAL VIVO, PRONEX FUNCAP/CNPq (Grant PR2-0101-00008.01.00/15), and INCT AmbTropic (National Institute of Science and Technology for the Tropical Marine Environment).
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MOS and TT conceived and coordinated the study, analyzed coral species and remote sensing data, participated in its design, and helped to write and revise the manuscript. MD, SF, BP, MM, and AG executed the study and revised the manuscript. CEPT helped to write and revise the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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de Oliveira Soares, M., Teixeira, C.E.P., Ferreira, S.M.C. et al. Thermal stress and tropical reefs: mass coral bleaching in a stable temperature environment?. Mar. Biodivers. 49, 2921–2929 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-019-00994-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-019-00994-4