Projecting coral responses to intensifying marine heatwaves under ocean acidification ...

• Main Authors: Klein, Shannon G., Geraldi, Nathan R., Anton, Andrea, Schmidt‐Roach, Sebastian, Ziegler, Maren, Cziesielski, Maha J., Martin, Cecilia, Rädecker, Nils, Frölicher, Thomas L., Mumby, Peter J., Pandolfi, John M., Suggett, David J., Voolstra, Christian R., Aranda, Manuel, Duarte, Carlos. M.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Wiley 2022
• Subjects: 530 Physics; 550 Earth sciences & geology; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.48350/166713; https://boris.unibe.ch/166713/

Over this century, coral reefs will run the gauntlet of climate change, as marine heatwaves (MHWs) become more intense and frequent, and ocean acidification (OA) progresses. However, we still lack a quantitative assessment of how, and to what degree, OA will moderate the responses of corals to MHWs as they intensify throughout this century. Here, we first projected future MHW intensities for tropical regions under three future greenhouse gas emissions scenario (representative concentration pathways, RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) for the near-term (2021–2040), mid-century (2041–2060) and late-century (2081–2100). We then combined these MHW intensity projections with a global data set of 1,788 experiments to assess coral attribute performance and survival under the three emissions scenarios for the near-term, mid-century and late-century in the presence and absence of OA. Although warming and OA had predominately additive impacts on the coral responses, the contribution of OA in affecting most coral attributes ...