Temperature patterns and mechanisms influencing coral bleaching during the 2016 El Niño

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 30 September 2019; doi:10.1038/s41558-019-0576-8

Improved predictions of coral bleaching are critical. In a coordinated global survey effort during the 2016 El Niño, time-series patterns of peak hot temperatures, cool period durations and temperature bimodality were found to be better predictors of coral bleaching than common threshold metrics.