Widespread thermal anomalies in 1997–1998, due primarily to regional effects of the El Nin˜ o–Southern Oscillation and possibly augmented by global warming, caused severe coral bleaching worldwide. Corals in all habitats alongthe Belizean barrier reef bleached as a result of elevated sea temperatures in the summer and fall of 1998, and in fore-reef habitats of the outer barrier reef and offshore platforms they showed signs of recovery in 1999. In contrast, coral populations on reefs in the central shelf lagoon died off catastrophically. Based on an analysis of reef cores, this was the first bleaching-induced mass coral mortality in the central lagoon in at least the last 3,000 years. Satellite data for the.
