El Nino Weakening, But Largest Global Coral Reef Bleaching Event On Record Far From Over
Coral reefs have had a rough run over the past two years. Climate change has ratcheted up ocean temperatures and El Niño helped kick them into overdrive in parts of the world. All that heat kicked off what has been a major coral die-off around the globe.
Coral bleaching alert levels over the past 30 days.
Credit: Coral Reef Watch
While El Niño has passed its peak, scientists have warned that the global coral die-off, known as coral bleaching, is still far from over. What began in 2014 is projected to continue through this year and even into early 2017.
This is the third global bleaching event on record. The others were in 1998 and 2010, both El Niño years. El Niño, which is marked by warmer than normal waters in the tropical Pacific, has certainly played a role. The steady background creep of ocean warming due to climate change, however, is also an important factor. More than 90 percent of the accumulated heat due to climate change is ending up in the oceans and its effects are being acutely felt.
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The Pacific Ocean has been the epicenter of the global bleaching event and Christmas Island has been the tiny bullseye of that epicenter. The 150 square mile island sits right in the middle of the El Niño-warmed waters. Coral there have been subjected to some of the most stressful conditions anywhere in the world. Specifically, El Niño sent water temperatures as high as 88°F, or about 6°F above normal, in the region. That extended period of stress had already killed off a wide array of corals when Kim Cobb, a coral expert at Georgia Tech, visited the reef in November during peak El Niño heat. And though waters are cooling as El Niño ebbs, Cobb is expecting to see even more devastation when she returns to Christmas Island next month. She’s using crowdfunding for the trip because of the rapid response nature of the work and the wealth of information she and other scientists can learn from.
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http://www.climatecentral.org/news/longest-global-coral-bleaching-20062
