Can I read Resilience and climate change: lessons from coral reefs and bleaching in the Western Indian Ocean on EtoBox?

Resilience and climate change: lessons from coral reefs and bleaching in the Western Indian Ocean by David O. Obura is a Earth and Planetary Sciences article available to read on EtoBox.

What is Resilience and climate change: lessons from coral reefs and bleaching in the Western Indian Ocean about?

The impact of climate change through thermal stress-related coral bleaching on coral reefs of the Western Indian Ocean has been well documented and is caused by rising sea water temperatures associated with background warming trends and extreme climate events. Recent studies have identified a number of factors that may reduce the impact of coral bleaching and mortality at a reef or sub-reef level. However, there is little scientific consensus as yet, and it is unclear how well current science supports the immediate needs of management responses to climate change. This paper provides evidence from the Western Indian Ocean in support of recent hypotheses on coral and reef vulnerability to thermal stress that have been loosely termed ‘resistance and resilience to bleaching’. The paper argues for a more explicit definition of terms, and identifies three concepts affecting coral-zooxanthellae holobiont and reef vulnerability to thermal stress previously termed ‘resistance to bleaching’: ‘thermal protection’, where some reefs are protected from the thermal conditions that induce bleaching and/or where local physical conditions reduce bleaching and mortality levels; ‘thermal resistance’,

Who reads Resilience and climate change: lessons from coral reefs and bleaching in the Western Indian Ocean?

Author

David O. Obura

Publisher

Elsevier Science; Elsevier ; Elsevier Inc.; Elsevier BV; ScienceOpen (ISSN 0272-7714)

Published

2005

Language

EN

Field

Earth and Planetary Sciences (Physical Sciences)