El Nino and the fading colours of life

El Nino is the abnormal warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean which, in the case of South-east Asia, leads to prolonged drier and warmer weather. One severe impact it has on the marine life is coral bleaching.

Coral bleaching occurs when increased temperatures cause algae residing in the coral to be expelled by the millions. Prolonged exposures to higher water temperatures causes the coral to turn pale, and may eventually die.

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During the 1998 El Nino, 50 to 90 per cent of the reef organisms residing in Singapore were adversely affected, resulting in several colonies dying out. In 2010, unusually high water temperatures led to 60 per cent of coral colonies in Singapore showing signs of bleaching. This may not be total bad news, as studies shown that certain coral species were recovering rapidly from bleaching, a sign that they were gradually able to cope with higher water temperatures. 

This year 2014, there have been forecasts that El Nino is likely to develop during September November and to continue into early 2015. One option to protect our corals would be to relocate certain sensitive species of corals, which is not unfamiliar to us, since we had already done a few projects to protect them from development. As we are unable to control such events, we could only monitor our reefs to understand how different species respond and to help us develop management plans to safeguard the more vulnerable species.

References

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, "ENSO Alert System Status: El Niño Watch." Accessed September 10, 2014. http://www.cpc.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/ensodisc.pdf.

MyPaper, "Corals go spawning, but El Nino may turn them white ." Last modified May 26, 2014. Accessed September 10, 2014. http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/corals-go-spawning-el-nino-may-turn-them-white.

TODAY, "Hotter waters from El Nino could kill Singapore’s coral." Accessed September 9, 2014. http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/hotter-waters-el-nino-could-kill-singapores-coral.