( coral bleaching |
hurricane cooling |
thermal stress )
*Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 4301 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149;
Edited by Erica Hendy, Columbia University, New York, NY, and accepted by the Editorial Board June 7, 2007 (received for review February 9, 2007) Recent, global mass-mortalities of reef corals due to record warm sea temperatures have led researchers to consider global warming as one of the most significant threats to the persistence of coral reef ecosystems. The passage of a hurricane can alleviate thermal stress on coral reefs, highlighting the potential for hurricane-associated cooling to mitigate climate change impacts. We provide evidence that hurricane-induced cooling was responsible for the documented differences in the extent and recovery time of coral bleaching between the Florida Reef Tract and the U.S. Virgin Islands during the Caribbean-wide 2005 bleaching event. These results are the only known scenario where the effects of a hurricane can benefit a stressed marine community.
Environmental Sciences-Biological Sciences
Hurricanes benefit bleached corals
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Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149; and Center for Marine and Environmental Studies, University of the Virgin Islands, 2 John Brewer's Bay, St. Thomas, VI 00802
Author contributions: M.B., T.B.S., and R.S.N. performed research; D.P.M., M.B., T.B.S., D.L., and J.C.H. analyzed data; and D.P.M. and M.B. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
To whom correspondence should be sent at the * address.
www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0701194104
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