PRIMEIRO REGISTRO DE BRANQUEAMENTO DE CORAIS NO LITORAL DO CEARÁ (NE, BRASIL): INDICADOR DAS MUDANÇAS CLIMÁTICAS?

Coral Bleaching is an environmental phenomena that has been used worldwide to demonstrate environmental changes in tropical marine ecosystems. This study reports the first occurrence of coral bleaching for the Ceara coast (NE Brazil). Although the monitoring covers the period from 2005 to 2010 taken on an artificial reef within a port area, and a sandstone intertidal reef, the bleaching event in corals (Siderastrea stellata and Favia gravida) and zoanthid (Zoanthus sociatus) just occurred during the summer of 2010 (February and March). The event is related to changes in temperature anomaly of sea surface (1 - 2 oC), 4 - 7 weeks of heat above average, high temperatures on the sea surface (30 to 32 oC) and positive hot-spots values (the oceanographic and climatic data were obtained from the NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch Program). It’s assumed that there is the relationship between the anthozoan bleaching, levels of irradiation and the events of the anomaly of sea surface temperature (SST) in the studied reefs. High temperatures, the turbidity of the waters and the periodic stresses of intertidal reefs may have a synergistic effect during the reported bleaching episode; which creates a different situation compared to other stretches of the coast of Southwest Tropical Atlantic.