Successive marine heatwaves cause significant coral bleaching impacts during a fast phase

Approximately 42,000 coral colonies were surveyed between March 2010 and September 2012 to quantify bleaching impacts and resilience. The data documents severe bleaching ranging from 99% at shallow sites to 17% at deeper sites, with significant tissue mortality observed in March and May 2010. Findings from this study, published in Science of The Total Environment in 2020, demonstrate shifts in reef assemblages following successive thermal anomalies.

Use Cases

• Modeling coral bleaching severity based on taxa and depth mentioned in the description
• Analyzing coral community composition shifts before, during, and after thermal stress events
• Assessing the resilience and recovery capacity of specific coral taxa like Pocillopora and Acropora to repeated heat stress
• Studying the ecological impact of fast phase transitions between El Niño and La Niña events on high-latitude reefs

Strengths

• Survey quantified the response of approximately 42,000 coral colonies, providing a substantial sample size.
• Data collection spanned from March 2010 to September 2012, capturing before, during, and after multiple bleaching events.
• Findings are peer-reviewed and published in a scientific journal (Science of The Total Environment, 2020).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the single study location at Lord Howe Island.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network via data.gov.au, associated with a peer-reviewed scientific publication.

Collection Method

Coral health surveys completed at sites around Lord Howe Island.

Time Range

March 2010 to September 2012

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-27 20:44:32.134485; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Coral reef assemblages around Lord Howe Island, a high-latitude site.