Bioclimate.org: It’s life, Jim, but not as we know it….Climate change and coral reefs

Authors	Crabbe M.
Source	Biologist (1)
Type	P - Paper (2851)
Peer Review	2 - Medium (2288)
Audience	S - Specialist (3514)
Pages	24-27
Journal Number	54
Notes	In less than a month during 1980, the coral cover at 10m depth at Rio Bueno, a coral reef site on the North coast of Jamaica a few kilometres west of Discovery Bay, fell from over 70% to under 40%. What could have caused such a dramatic loss in so short a time? The answer is one of the most extreme events on the planet – a hurricane, in this case Hurricane Allen. Not only did the 12m high waves smash the branching Acropora coral colonies, but the hurricane also limited the recruitment and settlement of massive coral colonies such as Diploria for some years (Woodley et al, 1981; Crabbe et al, 2002).