Physical Diagnosis of the 2016 Great Barrier Reef Bleaching Event Geophysical Research Letters

Widespread coral bleaching across the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) in 2016 is often reportedly caused by El Niño and/or global warming. However, the GBR is not in a region where it is straightforward to anticipate sea surface temperature (SST) warming during El Niño, and the role of climatechange is unclear. This study uses a diverse range of observations to investigate the physical causes of SST anomalies that developed on the GBR in 2016. Warm SST anomalies developed in two stages. Initial warming was caused by El Niño shifting the global ‐scale pattern of convection, increasing solar radiation in the Coral Sea. The warm anomaly was extended and ampli fied near the coast by a terrestrial heat wave propagating across eastern Australia, further warming the GBR through turbulent heat flux. It is concluded