12/8/2023 0 Comments Key largo florida out of gas![]() ![]() While water temperatures could continue to spike - which could be devastating - a tropical storm or hurricane could churn the water and cool it down. Still, forecasting what will happen the rest of the summer is hard, De La Cour and Bruckner said. It is still a minor number that are completely white, certain species, but it is much sooner than we expected.” “We’re not yet at the point where we are seeing any mortality. “We are at least a month ahead of time, if not two months,” Bruckner said. The peak for bleaching typically happens in late August or September. Then in the last few days, some reefs lost all their color. Previous Alert Level 2s were reached in August, she said.Īndrew Bruckner, research coordinator at the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, said some coral reefs began showing the first signs of bleaching two weeks ago. Surface temperatures around the Keys have been averaging about 91 degrees (33 Celsius), well above the normal mid-July average of 85 degrees (29.5 Celsius), said Jacqueline De La Cour, operations manager for NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch program. That level is reached when the average water surface temperature is about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) above the normal maximum for eight straight weeks. Scientists with NOAA this week raised their coral bleaching warning system to Alert Level 2 for the Keys, their highest heat stress level out of five. ![]() Liv Williamson / University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science via AP And we still have more to come.” Fire coral and staghorn corals with bleaching and tissue loss on July 20, 2023, in the North Dry Rocks Reef off the coast of Key Largo, Fla. “The corals are pale, it looks like the color’s draining out,” said Lesneski, who has spent several days on the reefs over the last two weeks. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |