Third Ever Global Coral Bleaching Event Declared

Bleaching intensifies in Hawaii, high ocean temperatures threaten Caribbean corals: NOAA

NOAA has declared the third global coral bleaching event ever known, as record high ocean temperatures cause widespread coral bleaching across Hawaii. The researchers also confirmed the same stressful conditions are now expanding to the Caribbean, said a report released today.

Waters are warming in the Caribbean, threatening coral in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, NOAA scientists said. Coral bleaching began in the Florida Keys and South Florida in August, but now scientists expect bleaching conditions there to diminish.

“The coral bleaching and disease, brought on by climate change and coupled with events like the current El Niño, are the largest and most pervasive threats to coral reefs around the world,” said NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch coordinator. “As a result, we are losing huge areas of coral across the U.S., as well as internationally. What really has us concerned is this event has been going on for more than a year and our preliminary model projections indicate it’s likely to last well into 2016.”

“Last year’s bleaching at Lisianski Atoll was the worst our scientists have seen,” said NOAA’s deputy superintendent for the monument. “Almost one and a half square miles of reef bleached last year and are now completely dead.”

Exposure to stressful environmental conditions such as high temperatures causes coral bleaching.  Stress causes corals to reject the symbiotic algae living in their tissues, causing corals to turn white or pale, leaving the coral without a major source of food, and making it more susceptible to disease.

The first ever recorded global bleaching occurred in 1998, followed by a second event in 2010, said the report.

October 2015-January 2016: NOAA’s standard 4-month bleaching outlook shows a threat of bleaching continuing in the Caribbean, Hawaii and Kiribati, and potentially expanding into the Republic of the Marshall Islands. (Credit: NOAA)

Report posted at NOAA declares third ever global coral bleaching event

FIRE-EARTH Alert – KKJJNNLL

CJ Members

Details of the Alert ‘KKJJNNL2’ will be broadcast on FIRE-EARTH Ch3 today (October 8, 2015) at the following times:

• 17:32 and 19:02UTC

Indonesia Seeks International Help to Tackle Forest Fires

Smoke from land and forest fires worsens again in Pekanbaru, Riau —BMKG

Indonesia’s president has asked for international help to put out land and forest fires in Sumatra that have blanketed most of the region, leaving tens of thousands of people with respiratory illnesses.

“Smoke shrouding Pekanbaru this morning was mixed with fog, reducing the visibility to only around 50 meters after it improved to around 1,000 meters on Wednesday morning,” said The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).

The smog has deteriorated the air quality to hazardous levels across parts of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and southern Thailand, forcing school closures and flight cancellations.

Pekanbaru (population: ~ 1.2 million) is the capital of Riau province, located in the central eastern coast of Sumatra along the Strait of Malacca.

BMKG Pekanbaru reported 202 hot spots, detected by satellites, across Sumatra, Bangka Belitung and Lampung as of 5.00 am local time on Thursday, said the report quoting BMKG.

The annual fires are caused by companies clearing rainforest for palm oil plantations.

Drought Destroys or Damages Crops in Three U.S. States

Crop disasters declared in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated a total of at least 35 counties across three states—Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas—as crop disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by drought. Those counties are:

Drought Crop Disaster Areas – Disaster Designation #1 (total of 20 counties)

• Arkansas. Ashley, Bradley, Calhoun, Clark, Cleveland, Columbia, Dallas, Drew, Hempstead, Lafayette, Little River, Miller, Nevada, Ouachita and Union counties.
• Louisiana. Bossier, Caddo and Webster parishes.
• Texas. Bowie and Cass counties.

Drought Crop Disaster Areas – Disaster Designation #2 (total of 15 counties)

• Texas. Anderson, Atascosa, Bexar, Cherokee, Ellis, Freestone, Gonzales, Guadalupe, Henderson, Karnes, Kaufman, Navarro, Smith, Van Zandt and Wilson counties.

All counties listed above were designated as crop disaster areas on Oct. 7, 2015.

USDA has issued a correction for counties in Mississippi designated as crop disaster areas on September 23, 2015, in release number 0139.15. The correction is posted at http://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/newsReleases

Crop Disasters 2015

Beginning January 7, 2015 USDA has declared crop disasters in at least 2,923 (2891+35-3) counties and county equivalents across 43 States [as well as Puerto Rico, and US Virgin Islands]: Arizona, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington, Wyoming.

• About 99 percent of the 2015 crop disaster designations are due to drought so far this year.

Crop Disasters 2014

In 2014, USDA declared crop disasters in at least 2,904 counties across 44 states. Most of the designations were due to drought.

Those states were:

Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan. Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. [FIRE-EARTH has documented all of the above listings. See blog content.]

Notes:
i. USDA trigger point for a countywide disaster declaration is 30 percent crop loss on at least one crop.

ii. The counties designated as agricultural disaster areas, as listed above, include both primary and contiguous disaster areas.

iii. Some counties may have been designated as crop disaster areas more than once due to multiple disasters.

iv. The U.S. has a total of 3,143 counties and county-equivalents.

Related Links

• Crop Disasters Declared across Multiple Areas October 1, 2015
• Crop Disasters Declared across CONUS, Puerto Rico September 25, 2015
• Crop Disasters Declared in Multiple Counties across Central U.S. September 17, 2015
• Crop Disasters Declared in 191 Counties across 10 U.S. States September 10, 2015
• Drought and Deluge, Hail and Heavy Rain Destroy Crops in U.S. September 4, 2015
• Multiple Crop Disasters Declared in 9 States, USVI August 27, 2015
• Drought
• Agricultural Disasters Index