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Summary of the Winter Coral Bleaching Event at Ningaloo Marine Park, July 2006

Created 24/06/2025

Updated 24/06/2025

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Mass coral bleaching events triggered by anomalously high seawater temperatures have been reported worldwide with growing frequency over the past two decades. However, the impacts of low temperature coral bleaching (winter bleaching) on reefs are less well known. The first major coral bleaching event recorded for Ningaloo Reef was a winter bleaching event in July 2006. The combination of cold air temperatures and aerial exposure of corals due to a low spring tide and a high pressure system appeared to cause bleaching of shallow-water corals. Observations made during an aerial survey indicated that bleaching had occurred along the entire length of the Ningaloo Reef. The most severe bleaching was recorded at Pelican Point, where approximately 83% of live hard coral was bleached. Bleaching was mainly restricted to shallow-water corals of back-reef and patch reef environments dominated by plate and corymbose acroporids. Submerged corals appeared to remain unbleached. To investigate the recovery of bleached corals, two surveys were undertaken at Coral Bay and Pelican Point. At Coral Bay, approximately 90% of bleached coral had recovered by 14 weeks after the event, and approximately 100% of bleached coral had recovered at Pelican Point 30 weeks after the event. This report describes the recovery of corals after a winter bleaching event and provides information regarding the first major bleaching event to be observed at Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia. The potential combination of both winter and summer bleaching occurring in one year at the same reef could result in an increased threat to corals and should be considered among the climate change projections for coral reefs at some locations.

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Field Value
Title Summary of the Winter Coral Bleaching Event at Ningaloo Marine Park, July 2006
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/a0d7eec7-5281-4c90-81d9-fde5b5f6512a
Contact Point
Australian Ocean Data Network
Shannon.Armstrong@dpaw.wa.gov.au
Reference Period 01/01/2006 - 01/01/2006
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Australian Oceans Data Network

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Australian Oceans Data Network "Summary of the Winter Coral Bleaching Event at Ningaloo Marine Park, July 2006". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://catalogue.aodn.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/summary-of-the-winter-coral-bleaching-event-at-ningaloo-marine-park-july-2006