Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Shannon G. Klein, Nathan R. Geraldi, Andrea Anton, Sebastian Schmidt-Roach, Maren Ziegler, Maha J. Cziesielski, Cecilia Martin, Nils Radecker, Thomas L. Frolicher, Peter J. Mumby, John M. Pandolfi, David J. Suggett, Christian R. Voolstra, Manuel Aranda, Carlos M. Duarte
Summary: Research projected future impacts of marine heatwaves and ocean acidification on coral reefs, showing that OA may have minor effects on moderating coral responses to intensifying MHWs but could still lead to decreases in photosynthesis and survival. Rapid adaptation or acclimatization of corals to projected ocean conditions is crucial for their survival, especially under low emissions scenarios and increased reef management efforts to enhance resilience.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Tom Shlesinger, Robert van Woesik
Summary: Anomalously high ocean temperatures have increased in frequency, intensity, and duration due to greenhouse gas emissions. These temperature anomalies have led to coral bleaching, mortality, and changes in community structure. However, there are geographical differences in thermal regimes and past disturbances that may result in different bleaching responses among corals within and among oceans.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Mary K. Donovan, Deron E. Burkepile, Chelsey Kratochwill, Tom Shlesinger, Shannon Sully, Thomas A. Oliver, Gregor Hodgson, Jan Freiwald, Robert van Woesik
Summary: Climate change poses a serious threat to coral reefs, leading to coral bleaching and mortality, and global mass coral mortality events highlight the importance of mitigating climate change to protect coral reefs. Local stressors such as high abundance of macroalgae or urchins intensify coral loss and in combination with increasing heat stress, exacerbate coral mortality. Effective local management practices, combined with global efforts to mitigate climate change, offer hope for the survival of coral reefs in the Anthropocene era.
Editorial Material
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Mark R. Payne
Summary: A recent analysis of fish population data in Europe and North America has revealed an alarming increase in the occurrence of marine heatwaves, challenging our previous understanding of their ecological implications.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Michael D. Fox, Anne L. Cohen, Randi D. Rotjan, Sangeeta Mangubhai, Stuart A. Sandin, Jennifer E. Smith, Simon R. Thorrold, Laura Dissly, Nathan R. Mollica, David Obura
Summary: Global ocean warming has led to declines in coral reefs, but research in the central equatorial Pacific suggests that selective mortality during recurrent heatwaves may help coral communities adapt to future warming. Identifying and facilitating conditions for coral survival and recovery are crucial steps towards successful stewardship of coral reefs in the 21st century climate change.
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Christopher J. Brown, Camille Mellin, Graham J. Edgar, Max D. Campbell, Rick D. Stuart-Smith
Summary: Marine heatwaves are increasing in frequency and intensity, impacting coral reef fisheries indirectly through habitat degradation. A study found that the 2016 heatwave had both direct and indirect effects on the Great Barrier Reef's largest reef fishery, with temperature affecting fish catch rates and biomass. The research highlighted the potential large effect of heatwaves on catch rates of reef fishes, independent of changes in reef habitats.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Oceanography
Marcelo Soares, Sergio Rossi, Anne Gurgel, Caroline Lucas, Tallita Tavares, Beatriz Diniz, Caroline Feitosa, Emanuelle Rabelo, Pedro Pereira, Ruy de Kikuchi, Zelinda Leao, Igor Cruz, Pedro de Macedo Carneiro, Lorenzo Alvarez-Filip
Summary: The peculiar shallow-water reefs of the Tropical Southwestern Atlantic Ocean grow in suboptimal conditions and face pressures from natural and anthropogenic impacts, especially with worsening climate change. Bleaching events and human activities have severely affected these coral reefs, exacerbating species-specific negative impacts.
OCEAN & COASTAL MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Review
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Kathryn E. Smith, Michael T. Burrows, Alistair J. Hobday, Alex Sen Gupta, Pippa J. Moore, Mads Thomsen, Thomas Wernberg, Dan A. Smale
Summary: Research shows that marine heatwave events not only significantly impact ecosystem services, but also cause substantial economic losses to human societies. However, biological responses to marine heatwaves can also bring opportunities for interaction with the ocean.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Samuel Starko, James E. Fifer, Danielle C. Claar, Sarah W. Davies, Ross Cunning, Andrew C. Baker, Julia K. Baum
Summary: Climate change-amplified marine heatwaves can lead to extensive mortality in foundation species. However, the lack of longitudinal genomic datasets has hindered the understanding of how rapid selection events alter hidden genetic structure. Heatwave impacts may be worsened in obligate symbiotic species, where the genetics of multiple coevolving taxa may be affected.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Ahmed Eladawy, Takashi Nakamura, Mohamed Shaltout, Asmaa Mohammed, Kazuo Nadaoka, Michael D. Fox, Eslam O. Osman
Summary: Corals in the northern Red Sea exhibit high thermal tolerance, likely due to lower water temperatures. Bleaching patterns across the Red Sea are independent of the local maximum monthly mean of seawater temperature.
FRONTIERS IN MARINE SCIENCE
(2022)
Review
Oceanography
P. Cetina-Heredia, M. E. Allende-Arandia
Summary: Marine heatwaves (MHWs) and Cold Spells (MCSs) are extreme temperature events in the ocean that can lead to coral bleaching. This study focuses on MHWs and MCSs in the Caribbean Sea over the past four decades and reveals their connection to coral bleaching, seasonal patterns, and climate indices such as El Nino/La Nina and the Atlantic Meridional Mode. The results provide important information for the management of reefs in the face of ongoing climate change.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-OCEANS
(2023)
Review
Oceanography
Yulong Yao, Chunzai Wang
Summary: This study reveals the distinct differences in the mean and trend between marine heatwaves (MHWs) and marine cold-spells (MCSs) across global coral reef zones. MHWs are projected to increase in frequency and duration, while MCSs are expected to decrease. Upper-ocean warming is identified as the main driver of the increase in MHWs and the decrease in MCSs. These findings highlight the importance of understanding the projected changes in extreme El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events for the occurrence of MHWs and coral bleaching in tropical oceans.
PROGRESS IN OCEANOGRAPHY
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Magena R. Marzonie, Line K. Bay, David G. Bourne, Andrew S. Hoey, Samuel Matthews, Josephine J. Nielsen, Hugo B. Harrison
Summary: Scleractinian coral populations are facing increasing exposure to temperatures above their upper limits, leading to declines in coral reef ecosystem health. Variations in thermal tolerance exist among species, individual coral colonies, and populations. This study conducted heat stress experiments to assess heat tolerance across a large environmental gradient. The results showed variations in heat tolerance among species and within reefs, with mild heatwave exposure positively correlated with heat tolerance over the past 35 years, but recent severe heatwaves showing a negative relationship. These findings suggest that marine heatwaves are selecting for tolerant individuals and populations, but recent severe heatwaves may compromise this adaptive potential.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Shijian Hu, Shihan Li, Ying Zhang, Cong Guan, Yan Du, Ming Feng, Kentaro Ando, Fan Wang, Andreas Schiller, Dunxin Hu
Summary: The study reveals unexpectedly strong subsurface marine heatwaves in the tropical western Pacific Ocean, which may have significant impacts on the marine ecosystem and fishery production. Particularly, these subsurface heatwaves are stronger and more frequent in April-June, potentially affecting the fishery resources in the region.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
D. Burn, A. S. Hoey, S. Matthews, H. B. Harrison, M. S. Pratchett
Summary: Climate-induced coral bleaching poses a major threat to coral assemblages worldwide, but susceptibility to bleaching varies among different coral taxa. In this study, we compared bleaching susceptibility among 10 coral morpho-taxa and two colony size classes across 33 reefs in the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea Marine Parks. We found that colony size and bleaching severity significantly influenced the hierarchy of bleaching susceptibility among taxa, with massive Porites shifting from being less likely to bleach to becoming highly susceptible as overall bleaching severity increased. Additionally, juvenile corals smaller than 5 cm in diameter were generally more resistant to bleaching, except for Montipora and Pocillopora colonies, which exhibited higher bleaching susceptibility compared to adult corals larger than 5 cm.
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Khalid Elbaz, Ibrahim Hoteit, Wafaa Mohamed Shaban, Shui-Long Shen
Summary: A novel deep-learning method was proposed to extract spatiotemporal features for air pollution concentration prediction, and a health risk assessment was conducted in NEOM City. The results showed that the proposed method significantly improved the accuracy of air quality forecasting compared to existing models.
Article
Environmental Sciences
P. P. Povinec, V. P. Papadopoulos, G. Krokos, Y. Abualnaja, A. Pavlidou, I Kontul, J. Kaizer, A. Cherkinsky, A. Molnar, M. Molnar, L. Palcsu, A. S. Al Ghamdi, H. A. Anber, A. S. Al Othman, I Hoteit
Summary: This study presents the findings of tritium and radiocarbon levels in seawater samples from the Red Sea, with a focus on the influence of deep bottom water flow on tritium distribution and the transport of carbon in the water column, which is crucial for the sink of anthropogenic carbon.
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RADIOACTIVITY
(2023)
Review
Environmental Sciences
Muhammad Mubashar Dogar, Leon Hermanson, Adam A. Scaife, Daniele Visioni, Ming Zhao, Ibrahim Hoteit, Hans-F Graf, Muhammad Ahmad Dogar, Mansour Almazroui, Masatomo Fujiwara
Summary: Understanding the influence of volcanism on ENSO and its climatic impacts is important. Most studies suggest that there is a consensus that explosive eruptions can lead to El Nino-like SST response during the eruption year and a La Nina-like response a few years later. However, there are still concerns and uncertainties about the ENSO-volcano link, as the response seems sensitive to various factors. More research and observational records are needed to fully understand the impact of extratropical volcanism on ENSO, especially regarding the post-eruption winter warming.
EARTH SYSTEMS AND ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Sivareddy Sanikommu, Sabique Langodan, Hari Prasad Dasari, Peng Zhan, George Krokos, Yasser O. Abualnaja, Khaled Asfahani, Ibrahim Hoteit
Summary: Coastal oceans, which are home to 40% of the world population and contribute $1.5 trillion to the global economy, lack long-term observations. Global reanalyses, although widely used, provide coarse information. In response to the increasing population and development in the Red Sea, a 20-year high-resolution reanalysis (RSRA) was generated, providing a better description of the Red Sea's circulation features and trends compared to global reanalyses. RSRA accurately captures the three-layer summer transport through the Bab-al-Mandab and reproduces seasonal anomalies.
BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY
(2023)
Article
Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications
Elissar Al Aawar, Samah El Mohtar, Issam Lakkis, Abdulilah K. Alduwais, Ibrahim Hoteit
Summary: Air pollution is a significant threat to human health, the environment, and global climate. A new methodology based on Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling and Bayesian inference is proposed to determine the emission parameters of air contamination in an urban environment. High-resolution wind computations and pollution concentration values are provided by a Lagrangian dispersion model, which takes into account complex urban features. The proposed framework efficiently estimates the emission parameters and is sensitive to available observations.
COMPUTATIONAL GEOSCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Sabique Langodan, Luigi Cavaleri, Luciana Bertotti, Ali M. Qasem, Shanas Puthuveetil Razak, Angela Pomaro, Ibrahim Hoteit
Summary: This article describes the wave conditions in the Arabian Gulf over a 40-year period and their relationship with wind conditions. The study reveals the crucial role of dynamic generation of waves in this region. It emphasizes the need for more detailed and specific physics research in shallow coastal areas to provide a better understanding of wave patterns.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Boujemaa Ait-El-Fquih, Aneesh C. Subramanian, Ibrahim Hoteit
Summary: Modern climate models use both deterministic and stochastic parametrization schemes to represent uncertainties in their physics and inputs. This work proposes a variational Bayesian approach to simultaneously estimate the involved parameters and state of such systems through data assimilation. The approach breaks the posterior dependence between stochastic parameters and the dynamical augmented state, and provides a full posterior pdf for the stochastic parameters using a one-step-ahead smoothing-based ensemble Kalman filter. Extensive numerical experiments with a one-scale Lorenz-96 model demonstrate the relevance of the proposed approach.
QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY
(2023)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Naila F. Raboudi, Boujemaa Ait-El-Fquih, Ibrahim Hoteit
Summary: This work addresses the problem of data assimilation in large-dimensional systems with colored observation noise of unknown statistics. The authors generalize the existing filters to learn the statistics of the autoregressive (AR) model online. They propose two filtering EnKF-like algorithms to estimate the statistics together with the system state. Numerical experiments conducted with the Lorenz-96 model demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed colored observation-noise aware filtering schemes.
QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Mohamad Abed El Rahman Hammoud, Peng Zhan, Omar Hakla, Omar Knio, Ibrahim Hoteit
Summary: Detecting and understanding mesoscale ocean eddies is crucial for studying the transport of salt, heat, and carbon in the ocean. Existing eddy detection techniques have limitations in accurately predicting non-circular or non-elliptical eddies. This study applies deep learning techniques to semantic segmentation of eddies, using human-annotated datasets that include complex geometries commonly found in the real ocean. The results show that incorporating additional surface variables as inputs to the network improves the accuracy of eddy segmentation by approximately 5%. Fine-tuning a pre-trained neural network also reduces training time and improves accuracy compared to training from scratch.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Abdulilah Khalid Alduwais, Hari Prasad Dasari, Rama Krishna Karumuri, Harikishan Gandham, Badr H. Alharbi, Karumuri Ashok, Ibrahim Hoteit
Summary: This study investigated the transport mechanisms of ozone and their impact on nocturnal surface ozone enhancements in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The findings revealed that local transport, long-range transport from highly polluted regions, and stratospheric intrusion were the main factors contributing to the increase in ozone concentrations.
ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Harikishan Gandham, Hari Prasad Dasari, Md Saquib Saharwardi, Ashok Karumuri, Ibrahim Hoteit
Summary: This study investigates the characteristics and changes in dust emissions in the Arabian Peninsula using high-resolution data from MODIS. The results reveal that river basins and sand dunes are important dust sources in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, respectively, while Oman is the prominent source in the southern region. Furthermore, the study finds that drought conditions significantly enhance dust emissions in these regions.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
E. Tzempelikou, C. Parinos, C. Zeri, I. Hatzianestis, Y. Abualnaja, I. Hoteit, E. Plakidi, S. Chourdaki, S. Iliakis, V. P. Papadopoulos, A. Pavlidou
Summary: This study provides a baseline assessment of water pollution in the coastal areas of Saudi Arabia by analyzing trace metals (Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn), total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in seawater samples collected from 71 sampling stations in June-July 2021. The highest concentrations of Co, Cu, and Ni were found in Al-Shuqaiq, while the Jeddah lagoon waters had the highest concentrations of Pb and Zn. Elevated concentrations of TPHs and PAHs were observed in the surface waters of Al Lith, Jeddah lagoon, and Jeddah Mena. However, all trace metals, TPHs, and individual PAHs analyzed in this study were below the environmental standards set by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
(2023)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Farah Souayfane, Ricardo M. Lima, Hayssam Dahrouj, Hari Prasad Dasari, Ibrahim Hoteit, Omar Knio
Summary: This study examines the impact of weather variability on the design and operation of renewable energy systems for office buildings in Saudi Arabia. The results show that considering extreme weather events leads to higher investment costs in fully renewable energy systems. However, neglecting these events results in a significant performance gap.
JOURNAL OF BUILDING ENGINEERING
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Jingyi Ma, Daquan Guo, Peng Zhan, Ibrahim Hoteit
Summary: A 3D high-resolution general ocean circulation model was used to study the characteristics and seasonal variability of internal tides in the Arabian Sea. The study identified three major source locations of internal tides and observed different propagation patterns. Internal tides were found to be more pronounced in January, possibly due to strong stratification in winter.
FRONTIERS IN MARINE SCIENCE
(2023)