Fig. 1: Historic heat stress and mass coral bleaching in Palau.
From: Emergent increase in coral thermal tolerance reduces mass bleaching under climate change
Timeseries of annual maximum DHW values assuming no thermal tolerance enhancement (a), shown as the mean (square) and range (error bar, minimum to maximum) across all reef pixels (N = 152). Large-scale coral bleaching surveys were conducted in 1998, 2010, and 2014–2017 (years marked with *). Mass coral bleaching was recorded in 1998 and 2010, but not in 2017, despite comparable DHWs. Sporadic observations in 2001–2003 and 2006 documented no bleaching. Source data are provided as a Source Data file. Maps for each large-scale bleaching survey (b) show bleaching severity at survey locations (greyscale points), annual maximum DHW (raster), land area (dark grey polygons) and reef area (black polygons). Example images (c) show bleached coral assemblages in 1998 (photo credit: Dr. Pat Colin) and 2010 (photo credit: Dr. Robert van Woesik), and a healthy assemblage in 2017 (photo credit: Coralassist lab).
