Coral Bleaching Webinar Coral Basics What is Coral

Coral Bleaching Webinar • Coral Basics • What is Coral Bleaching? • Long-term Effects of Bleaching • Monitoring for Bleaching • Managing Bleaching • Classroom Connections

Coral Basics

Anatomy of a Coral Reef-building Corals Also known as… Hard corals Stony corals Hexacorals

Anatomy of a Coral Are reef-building Corals… Animals? Plants? Minerals?

Question Slide #1 Reef-building corals are _______ a. Plants b. Animals c. Minerals

Anatomy of a Coral All Three! • Animal – polyp mouth tentacles – multiples of 6

Anatomy of a Coral • Plant – zooxanthellae Symbiotic algae that give coral their colors

Anatomy of a Coral • Mineral - skeleton

Coral Feeding How do corals feed?

Question Slide #2 How do corals feed? a. With their tentacles b. Via photosynthesis c. By osmosis d. Both a and b e. Both b and c

Coral Feeding How do corals feed? Photosynthesis – 70% Raptorial – using tentacles (Direct Absorption)

Coral Reproduction How do corals reproduce? Asexually – polyps splitting to create clones of themselves This is how an individual colony grows

Coral Reproduction Sexually – spawning to create genetically new polyps through cross fertilization. This is how new colonies start.

Coral Survival What do reef-building corals need to survive? Hard Surface Clear, sunlit water Moving water Warm water (68 -86 F)

What is Coral Bleaching?

Question Slide #3 What is coral bleaching? a. Dead coral b. Form of starvation c. Loss of a symbiotic partner d. Both a and b e. Both b and c

Coral Bleaching

Coral Bleaching Coral bleaching is caused by environmental stresses. These may include extremes in… • • Salinity Pollution Sedimentation Temperature

Coral Bleaching What does it look like? FGBNMS 2010

Coral Bleaching Polyps become mostly clear, showing the white skeleton beneath.

Coral Bleaching Paling is a sign that corals are starting to bleach.

Coral Bleaching may not occur evenly across a single colony.

Coral Bleaching Different colonies of the same species may respond differently.

Coral Bleaching Paling, bleached and dead sections may all occur in the same colony.

Long-Term Effects of Bleaching

Question Slide #4 Coral can recover from bleaching. a. True b. False

EFGB Deep Station 11 July 2016 Bleaching is not necessarily a death sentence. February 2017 October 2016 - Recovery of Colpophyllia natans and Orbicella franksi colonies - Paling of Montastraea cavernosa colony

EFGB Shallow Station 102 July 2016 Corals can recover from bleaching if the stressor is eliminated quickly enough. February 2017 October 2016 - Recovery of Pseudodiploria strigosa, Orbicella franksi, Orbicella faveolata colonies - 1 Orbicella franksi colony still paling

EFGB Shallow Station 208 July 2016 Corals can die if the stressors continue for too long. February 2017 October 2016 - Orbicella franksi colonies paling - Orbicella faveolata colony paling - Partial mortality of Orbicella franksi and Porites astreoides colonies

Long-term effects: • More susceptible to disease • Less energy available for skeletal growth • Less energy available for reproduction • Loss of habitat for other creatures

Monitoring for Coral Bleaching

Question Slide #5 Which of the following is not used to measure water temperature for monitoring purposes? a. Satellite b. Hand-held probe c. Dive computer d. Buoy e. Datasonde

Monitoring How do we monitor water temperatures on the reef? • Water quality instruments on the sea floor (hourly) • Handheld water quality probes (opportunistically) • TABS Buoys (daily) • Satellite measurements of SST* (daily) *Sea Surface Temperature

Monitoring Daily Mean Water Temperature at East and West Flower Garden Bank, 2016 32 30 Temperature (C) 28 26 24 22 EFGB TABS Buoy WFGB TABS Buoy 20 EFGB (1990 -2015) WFGB (1990 -2015) 18 16 1 -Jan EFGB 2016 WFGB 2016 1 -Feb 1 -Mar 1 -Apr 1 -May 1 -Jun 1 -Jul Date 1 -Aug 1 -Sep 1 -Oct 1 -Nov 1 -Dec

Monitoring Remote Sensing System - NOAA Coral Reef Watch

Monitoring Remote Sensing System - NOAA Coral Reef Watch DHW=Degree Heating Weeks (86 F) (68 F) SST=Sea Surface Temperature

Monitoring Satellites & Bleaching Tutorial • Bleaching Threshold = 1 C above Maximum Monthly Mean • Degree Heating Week (DHW) = heat stress accumulated over the past 12 weeks • 4 DHW = significant coral bleaching likely • 8 DHW = widespread bleaching and mortality likely

Managing Bleaching: What’s a Reef Manager to Do?

Reef Management Reduce pollution, coastal runoff and overfishing to enhance overall reef health

Reef Management • Artificially shade or cool selected reefs to lessen impacts • Inoculate corals with heat resistant strains of zooxanthellae

Reef Management Restrict potentially stressful activities during and after a bleaching event

Reef Management Help new corals recruit or transplant new corals after a bleaching event

Classroom Connections

Resources Flowergarden. noaa. gov

Resources Flowergarden. noaa. gov/education/

Resources Flowergarden. noaa. gov/education/bleaching. html

Resources Flowergarden. noaa. gov/education/teachers. html

Resources https: //oceanservice. noaa. gov/facts/coral_bleach. html

Kelly Drinnen Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary 4700 Avenue U, Building 216 Galveston, TX 77551 Phone: 409 -621 -5151 ext. 105 Email: Kelly. Drinnen@noaa. gov www. facebook. com/FGBNMS http: //sanctuaries. noaa. gov