Endotrophin ELISA Kit

Coral reefs worldwide are threatened by thermal stress caused by climate change. Especially devastating periods of coral loss frequently occur during El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events originating in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP). El Nino-induced thermal stress is considered the primary threat to ETP coral reefs. An increase in the frequency and intensity of ENSO events predicted in the coming decades threatens a pan-tropical collapse of coral reefs. During the 1982-1983 El Nino, most reefs in the Galapagos Islands collapsed, and many more in the region were decimated by massive coral bleaching and mortality. However, after repeated thermal stress disturbances, such as those caused by the 1997-1998 El Nino, ETP corals reefs have demonstrated regional persistence and resiliency. Using a 44 year dataset (1970-2014) of live coral cover from the ETP, we assess whether ETP reefs exhibit the same decline as seen globally for other reefs. Also, we compare the ETP live coral cover rate of change with data from the maximum Degree Heating Weeks experienced by these reefs to assess the role of thermal stress on coral reef survival. We find that during the period 1970-2014, ETP coral cover exhibited temporary reductions following major ENSO events, but no overall decline. Further, we find that ETP reef recovery patterns allow coral to persist under these El Nino-stressed conditions, often recovering from these events in 10-15 years. Accumulative heat stress explains 31% of the overall annual rate of change of living coral cover in the ETP. This suggests that ETP coral reefs have adapted to thermal extremes to date, and may have the ability to adapt to near-term future climate-change thermal anomalies. These findings for ETP reef resilience may provide general insights for the future of coral reef survival and recovery elsewhere under intensifying El Nino scenarios.

The endorheic Tibetan Plateau (ETP), which consists of all the endorheic basins of the Tibetan Plateau (TP), has exhibited an overall mass gain in recent decades. However, the role played by atmospheric water (AW) transport on the hydrological status over the ETP is poorly understood. In this study, the AW source to the ETP was tracked with the Water Accounting Model-2 layers (WAM-2) and AW transport to the ETP through its boundaries was quantified, with three reanalysis products (ERA-I, MERRA-2, and JRA-55) during 1979/1980-2015. It is found that total AW input to the ETP is about 13-25%, 59-71%, 10-13%, and 3-7% of mean annual totals in spring, summer, autumn, and winter, respectively. At annual scales, the AW source from land (52-54%) dominates the AW contribution to the ETP, while local recycling of AW over the ETP accounts for about 17-22% of the mean annual total AW contribution. Increased precipitation over the ETP during 1979-2015 was mostly attributed to the significantly increased AW contribution from the Indian Ocean, especially from increased AW inputs transported from the western and southern boundaries in summer. Comparisons between the AW budget and terrestrial water storage changes indicate that the AW budget change over the ETP modulated the variations of terrestrial water storage change during 2002-2014 and annual lake mass change during 1989-2015.