资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

Widespread coral bleaching across the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) in 2016 is often reportedly caused by El Nino and/or global warming. However, the GBR is not in a region where it is straightforward to anticipate sea surface temperature (SST) warming during El Nino, and the role of climate change is unclear. This study uses a diverse range of observations to investigate the physical causes of SST anomalies that developed on the GBR in 2016. Warm SST anomalies developed in two stages. Initial warming was caused by El Nino shifting the global-scale pattern of convection, increasing solar radiation in the Coral Sea. The warm anomaly was extended and amplified near the coast by a terrestrial heat wave propagating across eastern Australia, further warming the GBR through turbulent heat flux. It is concluded that El Nino caused the SST anomaly, and global warming increased its amplitude and extended it by several months.