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Article: Coral bleaching on Johnston Atoll, central Pacific Ocean.
- Article from:
- The Biological Bulletin
- Article date:
- October 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Marine Biological Laboratory. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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On 10 September 1996, extensive coral bleaching was noted on Johnston Atoll (JA), an isolated coral reef ecosystem in the central Pacific Ocean (16 [degrees] N, 169 [degrees] W). Between September 1996 and March 1997 we monitored the nature and extent of the bleaching, as well as the anomalous conditions of ocean temperature.
Coral "bleaching," or the loss of zooxanthellae and their photosynthetic pigments, is one of the first visible signs of thermal stress (1). The association between mass reef bleaching, and subsequent coral mortality, with elevated ocean temperatures is of concern in light of predicted global temperature increases over the next century (2). Mass ...