Coral bleaching in the southern Seychelles during the 1997-1998 Indian Ocean warm event

Coral bleaching shows complex spatial-temporal dynamics at several scales. Recent developments in ocean surface remote sensing technologies allow for both a better appreciation of these dynamics and an opportunity to place more local studies of coral bleaching and bleaching-related coral mortality into wider oceanographic and biogeographic contexts. Coral bleaching is described at four coral reefs in the southern Seychelles (sea area 6-10 degrees S 45-54 degrees E) during March-May 1998, Bleaching intensity varied between locations, between environments at the within-reef scale, and between coral growth forms. These data are compared with bleaching reports and sea surface temperature statistics for eight further stations in the western Indian Ocean to establish a link between bleaching and the unprecedented warming of the Indian Ocean during 1997/98, Implications for long-term reef history, and coral reef futures, in the western Indian Ocean are discussed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd, All rights reserved.