title: High spatial variability in coral bleaching around Moorea (French Polynesia): patterns across locations and water depths.
abstract: Mass coral bleaching events are one of the main threats to coral reefs. A severe bleaching event impacted Moorea, French Polynesia, between March and July 2002, causing 55+/-14% of colonies to suffer bleaching around the island. However, bleaching varied significantly across coral genera, locations, and as a function of water depth, with a bleaching level as high as 72% at some stations. Corals in deeper water bleached at a higher rate than those in shallow water, and the north coast was more impacted than the west coast. The relatively small scale of variability in bleaching responses probably resulted from the interaction between extrinsic factors, including hydrodynamic condition, and intrinsic factors, such as differential adaptation of the coral/algal association.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Ecosystèmes Aquatiques Tropicaux et Méditerranéens, UMR CNRS 8046, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes & Université de Perpignan, 66860 Perpignan Cedex, France. penin@univ-perp.fr
authors.forename: Lucie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Penin
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Adjeroud
authors.forename: Muriel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schrimm
authors.forename: Hunter Stanton
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Lenihan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D037421:Anthozoa / Q000145:classification; D004141:Dinoflagellida / Q000166:cytology*; D005843:Geography; D008386:Marine Biology; D011114:Polynesia; D012212:Rheology; D012623:Seawater; D013045:Species Specificity; D013559:Symbiosis; D013696:Temperature