Fig. 1: Examples of bleaching-related events and overlapping actions.

a Timeline and sequence of the bleaching-related events and overlapping actions. The vertical lines indicate the onset of each “event”. Short-term action plan (STAP) e.g., closing major scuba diving and fishing areas. Long-term action plan (LTAP) e.g., marine protected areas (MPA´s) or local management. b Map showing the global distribution of the maximum Bleaching Alert Area count (BAA_count). It shows how many times coral reefs have been potentially exposed to thermal stress conditions where, at least, the bleaching alert level 1, has been recorded over the period 1986–2017. The data was retrieved from Coral Reef Watch program²⁴. c Global distribution of the reports of bleaching (n = 35,779) for the period 1986–2017³, including the bleaching distribution by year, and among countries group criteria (SIDS & LDC), and accuracy of BAA using a random forest classifier model (see methods supplementary material for details). d Example of human activities related to livelihoods and well-being identified as top human stressors³³, and therefore as “multiple stressors”. e Example of STAP´s (“local management; temporary closures and control of predators”)⁴¹ and LTAP´s (“No-take zones”) related to coral reefs. Coral reefs polygon’s boundaries and local management activities are amplified to facilitate their visualization.