Standardization of in situ coral bleaching measurements highlights the variability in responses across genera, morphologies, and regions.

Autor:	Khen A; Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States of America., Wall CB; Division of Biological Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States of America., Smith JE; Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States of America.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	PeerJ [PeerJ] 2023 Oct 02; Vol. 11, pp. e16100. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Oct 02 (Print Publication: 2023).
DOI:	10.7717/peerj.16100
Abstrakt:	Marine heatwaves and regional coral bleaching events have become more frequent and severe across the world's oceans over the last several decades due to global climate change. Observational studies have documented spatiotemporal variation in the responses of reef-building corals to thermal stress within and among taxa across geographic scales. Although many tools exist for predicting, detecting, and quantifying coral bleaching, it remains difficult to compare bleaching severity ( e.g. , percent cover of bleached surface areas) among studies and across species or regions. For this review, we compiled over 2,100 in situ coral bleaching observations representing 87 reef-building coral genera and 250 species of common morphological groups from a total of 74 peer-reviewed scientific articles, encompassing three broad geographic regions (Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans). While bleaching severity was found to vary by region, genus, and morphology, we found that both genera and morphologies responded differently to thermal stress across regions. These patterns were complicated by (i) inconsistent methods and response metrics across studies; (ii) differing ecological scales of observations ( i.e. , individual colony-level vs. population or community-level); and (iii) temporal variability in surveys with respect to the onset of thermal stress and the chronology of bleaching episodes. To improve cross-study comparisons, we recommend that future surveys prioritize measuring bleaching in the same individual coral colonies over time and incorporate the severity and timing of warming into their analyses. By reevaluating and standardizing the ways in which coral bleaching is quantified, researchers will be able to track responses to marine heatwaves with increased rigor, precision, and accuracy. Competing Interests: The authors declare there are no competing interests. (©2023 Khen et al.)
Databáze:	MEDLINE
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