@article {84067, title = {Large geographic variability in the resistance of corals to thermal stress}, journal = {Global Ecology and Biogeography}, year = {2020}, month = {10/2020}, abstract = {

Predictions for the future of coral reefs are largely based on thermal exposure and poorly account for potential geographic variation in biological sensitivity to thermal stress. Without accounting for complex sensitivity responses, simple climate exposure models and associated predictions may lead to poor estimates of future coral survival and lead to policies that fail to identify and implement the most appropriate interventions. To begin filling this gap, we evaluated a number of attributes of coral taxa and communities that are predicted to influence coral resistance to thermal stress over a large geographic range.

}, doi = {10.1111/geb.13191}, author = {McClanahan, Tim R and Maina, Joseph M and Darling, Emily S and Guillaume, Mireille M and Muthiga, Nyawira and D{\textquoteright}agata, Stephanie and Leblond, Julien and Arthur, Rohan and Jupiter, Stacy D and Wilson, Shaun and Mangubhai, Sangeeta and Ussi, Ali M and Humphries, Austin T and Patankar, Vardhan and Shedrawi, George and Julius, Pagu and Ndagala, January and Grimsditch, Gabriel} } @article {70225, title = {Temperature patterns and mechanisms influencing coral bleaching during the 2016 El Nino}, journal = {Nature Climate Change}, volume = {9}, year = {2019}, month = {09/2019}, pages = {845{\textendash}851}, type = {Letter}, abstract = {

Under extreme heat stress, corals expel their symbiotic algae and colour (that is, {\textquoteleft}bleaching{\textquoteright}), which often leads to widespread mortality. Predicting the large-scale environmental conditions that reinforce or mitigate coral bleaching remains unresolved and limits strategic conservation actions1,2. Here we assessed coral bleaching at 226 sites and 26 environmental variables that represent different mechanisms of stress responses from East Africa to Fiji through a coordinated effort to evaluate the coral response to the 2014{\textendash}2016 El Ni{\~n}o/Southern Oscillation thermal anomaly. We applied common time-series methods to study the temporal patterning of acute thermal stress and evaluated the effectiveness of conventional and new sea surface temperature metrics and mechanisms in predicting bleaching severity. The best models indicated the importance of peak hot temperatures, the duration of cool temperatures and temperature bimodality, which explained ~50\% of the variance, compared to the common degree-heating week temperature index that explained only 9\%. Our findings suggest that the threshold concept as a mechanism to explain bleaching alone was not as powerful as the multidimensional interactions of stresses, which include the duration and temporal patterning of hot and cold temperature extremes relative to average local conditions.

}, doi = {10.1038/s41558-019-0576-8}, author = {McClanahan, Tim R and Darling, Emily S and Maina, Joseph M and Muthiga, Nyawira A and D{\textquoteright}agata, Stephanie and Jupiter, Stacy D and Arthur, Rohan and Wilson, Shaun K and Mangubhai, Sangeeta and Nand, Yashika and Ussi, Ali M and Humphries, Austin T and Patankar, Vardhan J and Guillaume, Mireille M and Keith, Sally A and Shedrawi, George and Julius, Pagu and Grimsditch, Gabriel and Ndagala, January and Leblond, Julien} }