‘Shocking levels of stress.’ A marine heat wave is devastating Florida’s corals

Ocean water temperatures off southern Florida have spiked to record levels, with sea surface temperatures hovering at more than 2°C above typical seasonal peaks for the past few weeks. The heat wave threatens coral reef ecosystems already buffeted by years of ocean warming, disease, and pollution. Coral bleaching, in which heat-stressed coral polyps eject the symbiotic algae that live in their tissues and help nourish the coral, is already widespread this year off Florida’s coast. Corals are also shedding tissue and swiftly dying without going through bleaching. Ian Enochs, a coral reef ecologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has a close-up view of the damage. He heads the coral program at the agency’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory and is a leader of monitoring efforts at key reefs around the country. Science Insider spoke with him last week while he was in the Virgin Islands, where he was checking on reefs. This week, he expects to be examining corals off Florida. Q: What are your research teams seeing in Florida? A: White. By that I mean that we’re seeing a huge amount of bleaching. One of our most important long-term monitoring sites is at Cheeca Rocks in the Florida Keys. Cheeca Rocks has been, in the past, a really remarkable story of persistence. Nonetheless, my team [has] brought back reports and photographs of absolutely widespread bleaching. Not just that, they’re already ...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news