Mass Bleaching of Coral Reefs in the Caribbean: A Research Strategy

摘要

Stony corals, other reef-dwelling cridaria, and sponges suddenly bleached white from the mass expulsion of their brownish-colored symbiotic algae beginning in mid-July 1987 in the Florida Keys and Colombia. While bleaching has been reported before, often associated with lowered salinity and localized thermal stress, it has never been noted in the Caribbean over such a wide geographic area and depth range and involving so many species. NOAA's Office of Undersea Research sponsored a workshop in December 1987 to examine the bleaching event, to develop a protocol to investigate the causes and consequences of bleaching on reef ecology, and to develop recommendations for responding to similar events in the future.