Current Science

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

Bleaching Stress on Indian Coral Reef Regions during Mass Coral Bleaching Years using NOAA OISST Data


Affiliations
1 Space Applications Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Ahmedabad 380 015, India
2 Department of Geophysics (Applied), Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra 136 119, India
 

Coral reefs are one of the most ancient, highly productive marine bio-diverse ecosystems on earth. They are threatened to collapse under rapid climate change. ENSO is an extreme climate change event which elevates sea-surface temperature (SST) of tropical oceans. This elevated SST increases the level of thermal stress on coral reefs. Also, coral reefs are the most sensitive among all ecosystems due to temperature change; they exhibit bleaching when SST exceeds normal summer maxima and remains high for more than 28 days. Bleaching threshold, positive SST anomaly and degree heating week (DHW) are commonly used indices for calculating thermal stress on coral reefs. The major coral reef regions in India are Andaman, Nicobar, Lakshadweep, Gulf of Mannar and Gulf of Kachchh. SST from NOAA OISST v2 highresolution daily dataset at 0.25° global grids from 1982 to the present was used for the present study. Here, we focus on the variations in SST experienced by Indian coral reef regions during known mass coral bleaching (MCB) years, viz. 1998, 2010 and 2016. The year 2010 recorded the highest thermal stress for Andaman, Nicobar and Gulf of Kachchh regions, and the year 2016 was severe for Lakshadweep and Gulf of Mannar regions. In 2010 Nicobar was observed to be the most vulnerable according to DHW index.

Keywords

Bleaching Threshold, Degree Heating Week, Mass Coral Bleaching, Sea Surface Temperature.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Wilkinson, C. C., Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2004, Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, Australia, 2004.

  • Cesar. H., Burke, L. and Pet-Soede, L., The economics of worldwide coral reef degradation. Cesar Environment Economic Consulting, The Netherlands, 2013.

  • Crabbe, M. J., Climate change, global warming and coral reefs: modelling the effects of temperature. Comput. Biol. Chem., 2008, 32, 311–314.

  • Mumby, P. J., Hastings, A. and Edwards, H. J., Thresholds and the resilience of Caribbean coral reefs. Nature, 2007, 450, 98.

  • Frieler, K., Meinshausen, M., Golly, A., Mengel, M., Lebek, K., Donner, S. and Hoegh Guldberg, O., Limiting global warming to 2°C is unlikely to save most coral reefs. Nature Climate Change, 2013, 3, 165–170.

  • Anthony, K. R. N., Coral reefs under climate change and ocean acidification: challenges and opportunities for management and policy. Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour., 2016, 41, 59–81.

  • McField, M., Impact of climate change on coral in the coastal and marine environments of Caribbean Small Island Development States (SIDS). Caribbean Marine Climate Change Report Card: Science Review, 2017, 2017, pp. 52–59.

  • Marimuthu, N., Dharani, G., Vinithkumar, N. V., Vijayakumaran, M. and Kirubagaran, R., Recovery status of sea anemones from bleaching event of 2010 in the Andaman waters. Curr. Sci., 2011, 101, 734–736.

  • Arthur, R., Coral bleaching and mortality in three Indian reef regions during an El Niño southern oscillation event. Curr. Sci., 2000, 79, 1723–1729.

  • Lesser, M., Coral bleaching: cause and mechanisms. In Coral Reefs: An Ecosystem in Transition (eds Dubinsky, Z. and Stambler N.), Springer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 2011.

  • Brown, B., Coral bleaching: causes and consequences. Coral Reefs, 1997, 16, S129–S138.

  • Hoegh-Guldberg, O., Coral reef ecosystems and anthropogenic climate change. Reg. Environ. Change, 2011, 11, 215–227.

  • Eakin, C. M. et al., Caribbean corals in crisis: record thermal stress, bleaching, and mortality in 2005. PLoS ONE, 2010, 5, e13969.

  • Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Interim report: 2016 coral bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef, GBRMPA, Townsville, Australia, 2016.

  • Kumar, T. A. and Balasubramanian, T., Bleaching of corals in Agatti–Lakshadweep, India: a window view. In Proceedings of the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium, Australia, 2012.

  • Mohanty, P. et al., Coral bleaching along Andaman coast due to thermal stress during summer months of 2016: a geospatial assessment. Am. J. Environ. Protect., 2017, 6, 1–6.

  • Krishnan, P. et al., Elevated sea surface temperature during May 2010 induces mass bleaching of corals in the Andaman. Curr. Sci., 2011, 100, 111–117.

  • Baker, A., Glynn, P. and Riegl, B., Climate change and coral reef bleaching: an ecological assessment of long term impacts, recovery trends and future outlook. Estuarine Coastal Shelf Sci., 2008, 80, 435–471.

  • Strong, A. E., Barrientos C. S., Duda, C. and Sapper, J., Improved satellite techniques for monitoring coral reef bleaching. In Proceedings of the 8th International Coral Reef Symposium, Australia, 1997.

  • Liu, G., Strong, A. E. and Skirving, W., Remote sensing of sea surface temperature during 2002 barrier reef coral bleaching. EOS Trans. Am. Geophys. Union, 2003, 84, 137–141.

  • Gleeson, M. W. and Strong, A. E., Applying MCSST to coral reef bleaching. Adv. Space Res., 1995, 16, 151–154.

  • Eakin, C., Lough, J. and Heron, S., Climate Variability and Change: Monitoring Data and Evidence for Increased Coral Bleaching Stress In Coral Bleaching (eds Oppen M. J. H. and Lough, J. M.), Springer, Berlin, Germany, 2009.

  • Navalgund, R., Ajai, B., Ray Chaudhury, N., Bhattji, N., Madhupriya, N., Sharma, S. and Swaroop, P., Coral Reef Atlas of the World, SAC (ISRO), Ahmedabad, 2010.

  • National Centers for Environmental Information, NOAA, USA. OISST data available at http://eclipse.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/OI-daily-v2/NetCDF/2017/AVHRR/.

  • Reynolds, R. W., Smith, T. M., Liu, C., Chelton, D. B., Casey, K. S. and Schlax, M. G., Daily high-resolution blended analysis for sea surface temperature. J. Climate, 2007, 20, 5473–5496.

  • Vivekanandan, E., Hussain Ali, M., Jasper, B. and Rajagopalan, M., Thermal thresholds for coral bleaching in the Indian seas. J. Mar. Bio. Ass. India, 2008, 50, 209–214.

  • Ray Chaudhury, N., Arora, M. and Gujrati, A., Mass coral bleaching responses from Indian coral reef regions as Chapter: 9. In Climate Change and The Vulnerable Indian Coast Under Section: Coastal Sensitivity (eds Bhatt, J. R. and Ramesh, R.), 2018, pp. 169–178.

  • Eladawy, A., Nadaoka, K., Negm, A., Saavedra, O. and Hanafy, M., Assessment of long term thermal stress on Egyptian coral reefs based on remotely sensed sea surface temperature data. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Dev., 2015, 6, 938–946.

  • Hoegh-Guldberg, O., Climate change, coral bleaching and the future of the World’s coral reefs. Mar. Freshwater Res., 1999, 50, 839–866.

  • Lough, J., 1997–98: unprecedented thermal stress to coral reefs. Geophys. Res. Lett., 2000, 27, 3901–3904.

  • Ampou, E. E., Johan, O., Menkes, C. E., Niño, F., Birol, F., Ouillon, S. and Andréfouët S., Coral mortality induced by the 2015–2016 El-Niño in Indonesia: the effect of rapid sea level fall. Biogeosciences, 2017, 14, 817.

  • Arora, M., Chaudhury, N. R., Gujrati, A., Kamboj, R. D., Joshi, D., Patel, H. and Petal, R., Coral bleaching due to increased sea surface temperature in Gulf of Kachchh region, India during June 2016. Indian J. Geo. Mar. Sci., 2019, 48, 327–332.

  • Sadhukhan, K. and Raghunathan, C., Study on coral bleaching (2010) in Middle Andaman, Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Rec. Zool. Surv. India, 2012, 112, 27–34.

  • Marimuthu, N., Dharani, G., Vinithkumar, N. V., Vijayakumaran, M. and Kirubagaran, R., Recovery status of sea anemones from bleaching event of 2010 in the Andaman waters. Curr. Sci., 2011, 101, 734–736.

  • Joshi, D., Munjpara, S., Banerji, U. and Parasharya, D., Coral bleaching observations in the Gulf of Kachchh, India – a climate induced stress on the Scleractinians. J. Aquat. Biol. Fish, 2014, 2, 106–113.

  • De, K., Venkataraman, K. and Ingole, B., Current status and scope of coral reef research in India: a bio-ecological perspective. Indian J. Geomar. Sci., 2017, 46, 647–662.

  • Manikandan, S., Ganesapandian, S., Singh, M., Anand, M. and Kumaraguru, A. K., Impact of climate change induced coral bleaching in the northern part of Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay, southeast coast of India. J. Biol. Sci., 2014, 14, 276–283.

  • Idrees Babu, K. K. and Kumar, S. S., Status and changing trends of coral reefs in Lakshadweep archipelago after 1998 mass bleaching event – long term monitoring survey. Int. J. Appl. Pure Sci. Agric., 2016, 163–175.

  • Haritha, S., Raghukumar, C. and Dalal, S. G., Stress response of two coral species in the Kavaratti atoll of the Lakshadweep archipelago, India. Coral Reefs, 2005, 24, 463–474.

  • Adhavan, D., Kamboj, R. D., Marimuthu, N. and Bhalodi, M. M., Seasonal variation and climate change influence coral bleaching in Pirotan Island, Gulf of Kachchh Marine National Park, Gujarat. Curr. Sci., 2014, 107, 1780–1781.


Abstract Views: 390

PDF Views: 142




  • Bleaching Stress on Indian Coral Reef Regions during Mass Coral Bleaching Years using NOAA OISST Data

Abstract Views: 390  |  PDF Views: 142

Authors

Mohit Arora
Space Applications Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Ahmedabad 380 015, India
Nandini Ray Chaudhury
Space Applications Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Ahmedabad 380 015, India
Ashwin Gujrati
Space Applications Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Ahmedabad 380 015, India
Ramesh Chandra Patel
Department of Geophysics (Applied), Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra 136 119, India

Abstract


Coral reefs are one of the most ancient, highly productive marine bio-diverse ecosystems on earth. They are threatened to collapse under rapid climate change. ENSO is an extreme climate change event which elevates sea-surface temperature (SST) of tropical oceans. This elevated SST increases the level of thermal stress on coral reefs. Also, coral reefs are the most sensitive among all ecosystems due to temperature change; they exhibit bleaching when SST exceeds normal summer maxima and remains high for more than 28 days. Bleaching threshold, positive SST anomaly and degree heating week (DHW) are commonly used indices for calculating thermal stress on coral reefs. The major coral reef regions in India are Andaman, Nicobar, Lakshadweep, Gulf of Mannar and Gulf of Kachchh. SST from NOAA OISST v2 highresolution daily dataset at 0.25° global grids from 1982 to the present was used for the present study. Here, we focus on the variations in SST experienced by Indian coral reef regions during known mass coral bleaching (MCB) years, viz. 1998, 2010 and 2016. The year 2010 recorded the highest thermal stress for Andaman, Nicobar and Gulf of Kachchh regions, and the year 2016 was severe for Lakshadweep and Gulf of Mannar regions. In 2010 Nicobar was observed to be the most vulnerable according to DHW index.

Keywords


Bleaching Threshold, Degree Heating Week, Mass Coral Bleaching, Sea Surface Temperature.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv117%2Fi2%2F242-250