Impact of Coral Bleaching on Coral Growth in Brazil: Before and After the Intensification of Thermal Anomalies

• Grant number: 25/07384-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: June 01, 2025
• End date: January 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Ecosystems Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Miguel Mies
• Grantee: Bianca Espindula Jahn
• Host Institution: Instituto Oceanográfico (IO). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 23/09180-3 - The historical global impacts of climate change on coral reefs: the role of refugia and key oceanographical and functional traits, AP.JP

Abstract

The main consequence of global warming for coral reefs is coral bleaching, which often leads to large-scale mortality. Although the bleaching phenomenon is well-documented globally, the thermal stress and bleaching experienced by the unique reefs of the South Atlantic remain largely understudied. Therefore, this study aims to assess the growth rate of these species across different latitudes and compare growth before and after 2010, a year marked by the intensification of thermal anomalies. For this, cores from different coral species will be collected along different latitudes of the Brazilian coast to conduct sclerochronology, since scleractinian corals build their skeletons in patterns of high and low-density annual band pairs, which are used to track variability in coral growth over time and to construct age models for paleoclimatic reconstructions. Thus, the aim is to determine the basic growth rate for several coral species, with the expectation that it will be slower at higher latitudes. A decline in the growth rate is also expected after 2010, associated with the physiological stress caused by rising temperatures. These results are potentially relevant for improving conservation and management efforts for these species along the Brazilian coast, in addition to offering new insights into Brazil's climate refugium.