Potential for expansion of coral reefs into higher latitudes due to climate change

Author

Liu, Gang ; Skirving, William ; Strong, Alan E.

Author_Institution

Decision Syst. Technol. Inc., NOAA, Silver Spring, MD, USA

Volume

5

fYear

2003

fDate

22-26 Sept. 2003

Abstract

With the occurrence of recent strong climate events (e.g. El Nino 1997-1998 and La Nina 1999-2000) over the last couple of decades, it has become interesting to investigate if there have been any effects on sea surface temperature (SST) at geographical margins of coral reefs. In this study, the 9-km resolution satellite NOAA/NASA Ocean Pathfinder AVHRR global nighttime SST data were used to investigate the variation in geographic location of the annual minimum monthly mean 18/spl deg/C SST isotherm from 1985 to 2001 in an attempt to understand the possible effects of recent climate change on the geographic extent of corals.

Keywords

El Nino Southern Oscillation; atmospheric temperature; climatology; oceanography; remote sensing; AD 1985 to 2001; AD 1997 to 1998; AD 1999 to 2000; Agulhas Current; Atlantic Ocean; Bermuda Reefs; Brazil Current; El Nino; Houtman Abrolhos reefs; La Nina; Leewin Current; NOAA/NASA Ocean Pathfinder AVHRR; Saint Lucia; South Africa; Western Australia; annual minimum monthly mean SST isotherm; climate change; coral reefs; geographic location; global nighttime SST data; satellite; sea surface temperature; Africa; Australia; Ocean temperature; Road transportation; Silver; Springs; Temperature dependence; Temperature distribution; Thermal stresses; Time series analysis;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

OCEANS 2003. Proceedings

Conference_Location

San Diego, CA, USA

Print_ISBN

0-933957-30-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/OCEANS.2003.178342

Filename

1283028