Abstract
Occurrence of bleaching in scleractinian corals, a hydrocoral, and an octocoral species was observed in a reef community of Paraíba coast, northeastern Brazil, during an unusual thermal stress that occurred in March 2010. Four scleractinian species (Siderastrea stellata, Porites astreoides, Agaricia agaricites, and Mussismilia harttii) and one hydrocoral (Millepora alcicornis) were affected. Some bleached colonies of the gorgonian Plexaurella grandiflora were clearly dead. Other scleractinian and octocoral species in the area did not bleach, suggesting that susceptibility to bleaching differs among species. Four years after the bleaching event, most of the affected colonies had survived, while many diseased ones showed macroalgal overgrowth. A monitoring programme is needed to document and understand the short- and long-term effects of future bleaching on the endemic Brazilian coral fauna.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Antonius A, Riegl B (1998) Coral diseases and Drupella cornus invasion in the Red Sea. Coral Reefs 17:48
Baird AH, Marshall PA (2002) Mortality, growth and reproduction in scleractinian corals following bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 237:133–141
Baker AC, Glynn PW, Riegl B (2008) Climate change and coral reef bleaching: an ecological assessment of long-term impacts, recovery trends and future outlook. Estuar Coast Shelf Sci 80:435–471. doi:10.1016/j.ecss.2008.09.003
Carpenter KE, Abrar M, Aeby G, Aronson RB, Banks S et al (2008) One-third of reef-building corals face elevated extinction risk from climate change and local impacts. Science 321:560–563
Castro CB, Pires DO (1999) A bleaching event on a Brazilian coral reef. Rev Bras Oceanogr 47:87–90
Ferreira BP, Costa MBSF, Coxey MS, Gaspar ALB, Veleda D, Araujo M (2013) The effects of sea surface temperature anomalies on oceanic coral reef systems in the southwestern tropical Atlantic. Coral Reefs 32:441–454. doi:10.1007/s00338-0992-y
Guest JR, Baird AH, Maynard JA, Muttaqin E, Edwards AJ, Campbell SJ, Yewdall K, Affendi YA, Chou LM (2012) Contrasting patterns of coral bleaching susceptibility in 2010 suggest an adaptive response to thermal stress. PLoS ONE 7, e33353. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0033353
Hoeksema BW (1991) Control of bleaching in mushroom coral populations (Scleractinia: Fungiidae) in the Java Sea: stress tolerance and interference by life history strategy. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 74:225–237
Hoeksema BW, Matthews JL (2011) Contrasting bleaching patterns in mushroom coral assemblages at Koh Tao, Gulf of Thailand. Coral Reefs 30:95. doi:10.1007/s00338-010-0675-5
Hoeksema BW, Scott C, True JD (2013) Dietary shift in corallivorous Drupella snails following a major bleaching event at Koh Tao, Gulf of Thailand. Coral Reefs 32:423–428. doi:10.1007/s00338-012-1005-x
Kelmo F, Attrill MJ (2013) Severe impact and subsequent recovery of a coral assemblage following the 1997–8 El Niño event: a 17-year study from Bahia, Brazil. PLoS ONE 8, e65073. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0065073
Kelmo F, Attrill MJ, Jones MB (2003) Effects of the 1997/98 El Niño on the cnidarian community of a high turbidity coral reef system (Northern Bahia, Brazil). Coral Reefs 22:541–550. doi:10.1007/s00338-003-0343-0
Leão ZMAN, Kikuchi RKP, Oliveira MDM (2008) Branqueamento de corais nos recifes da Bahia e sua relação com eventos de anomalias térmicas nas águas superficiais do oceano. Biota Neotrop 8:69–82. doi:10.1590/S1676-06032008000300006
Leão ZMAN, Kikuchi RKP, Oliveira MDM, Vasconcellos V (2010) Status of Eastern Brazilian coral reefs in time of climate changes. Panam J Aquat Sci 5:224–235
Loya Y, Sakai K, Yamazato K, Nakano Y, Sambali H, van Woesik R (2001) Coral bleaching: the winners and the loosers. Ecol Lett 4:122–131. doi:10.1046/j.1461-0248.2001.00203.x
Marshall PA, Baird AH (2000) Bleaching of corals on the Great Barrier Reef: differential susceptibilities among taxa. Coral Reefs 19:155–163. doi:10.1007/s003380000086
Miranda RJ, Cruz ICS, Leão ZMAN (2013) Coral bleaching in the Caramuanas reef (Todos os Santos Bay, Brazil) during the 2010 El Niño event. Lat Am J Aquat Res 41:351–360. doi:10.3856/vol41-issue2-fulltext-14
NOAA National Climatic Data Center (2010) State of the climate: global analysis for March 2010. Accessed on February 21, 2012 from http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/2010/3
Prada J, Weil E, Yoshioka PM (2010) Octocoral bleaching during unusual thermal stress. Coral Reefs 29:41–45. doi:10.1007/s00338-009-0547-z
Rowan R, Knowlton N, Baker A, Jara J (1997) Landscape ecology of algal symbionts creates variation in episodes of bleaching. Nature 388:265–269
van Woesik R, Sakai K, Loya Y (2011) Revisiting the winners and the loosers a decade after coral bleaching. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 434:67–76. doi:10.3354/meps09203
Acknowledgments
We thank Luis Carlos Pereira Damasceno for essential help in the field and two anonymous reviewers for valuable suggestions on the manuscript. CNPq (Process Number 479213/2010-0) funded TLPD and AIG was supported by the doctoral scholarship from CAPES Foundation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by B. W. Hoeksema
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dias, T.L.P., Gondim, A.I. Bleaching in scleractinians, hydrocorals, and octocorals during thermal stress in a northeastern Brazilian reef. Mar Biodiv 46, 303–307 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-015-0342-8
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-015-0342-8