Effect of marine heatwaves on coral bleaching and mortality

In 2019, Moorea experienced an intense marine heatwave that caused coral bleaching and coral death. Specifically, heat stress disproportionately killed the larger (bigger than 30cm in diameter) than the medium size Pocillopora and Acropora corals. Normally without heat stress, the bigger corals are more resilient. This is a problem because the larger corals reproduce more. In addition, the newly-settled coral babies died at greater rates than during non-heatwave events. This research shows that marine heatwaves threaten the largest corals and their offspring, which can disrupt the recovery of corals after such stressful events.

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Speare et al. 2021