Keywords
climate change
coral reefs
environmental monitoring
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Abstract
Long-term, high accuracy seawater temperature data sets are essential in studies assessing environmental changes that may alter coral reef communities. Located at the approximately the same latitude, the subsurface seawater temperature (S3T) off Discovery Bay, Jamaica (DBJ) and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) had the same overall mean temperature. The USVI S3T during the winter months is ~0.5°C warmer than DBJ, while May - July at DBJ is ~1°C warmer than USVI S3T. With the passing of tropical storms in 1995 and 1997 in the USVI S3T dropped as much as 1.5°C within a 20 hr period and did not revert to the previous temperature during that calendar year. Mean monthly S3T during 2000 and 2001 in the USVI was >0.5 °C warmer than during similar periods in the early 1990s. Mean monthly S3T during 1999-2002 at DBJ was 0.27°C cooler than during 1994-1995.References
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