Early trajectories of benthic coral reef communities following the 2015/16 coral bleaching event at remote Aldabra Atoll, Seychelles

Coral reefs at remote Aldabra Atoll, Seychelles, show varying resilience to the 2015/16 bleaching event. While deep seaward reefs remained stable but dominated by turf algae and Halimeda, shallow reefs exhibited significant recovery, with hard coral cover increasing annually by 1.3% to 3.0%, reaching up to 93% of pre-bleaching levels in 2019. Shallow lagoonal reefs displayed lower initial coral loss (-34%) due to higher daily water temperature variability. However, full recovery at shallow seaward locations may still take five more years or longer, and deeper reefs face uncertain prospects. The study highlights that even rapid recovery may be insufficient to counteract long-term degradation from increasing bleaching events, even in minimally impacted remote sites.

Koester, A., Migani, V., Bunbury, N., Ford, A., Sanchez, C., & Wild, C. (2020). Early trajectories of benthic coral reef communities following the 2015/16 coral bleaching event at remote Aldabra Atoll, Seychelles. Scientific Reports, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-74077-x