Editing Coral bleaching (section)

==== Caribbean ====
Hard coral cover on reefs in the Caribbean have declined by an estimated 80%, from an average of 50% cover in the 1970s to only about 10% cover in the early 2000s.<ref>{{Cite journal |vauthors=Smith JE, Brainard R, Carter A, Grillo S, Edwards C, Harris J, Lewis L, Obura D, Rohwer F, Sala E, Vroom PS, Sandin S |date=January 2016 |title=Re-evaluating the health of coral reef communities: baselines and evidence for human impacts across the central Pacific |journal=Proceedings. Biological Sciences |volume=283 |issue=1822 |pages=20151985 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2015.1985 |pmc=4721084 |pmid=26740615}}</ref> A 2013 study to follow up on a mass bleaching event in Tobago from 2010 showed that after only one year, the majority of the dominant species declined by about 62% while coral abundance declined by about 50%. However, between 2011 and 2013, coral cover increased for 10 of the 26 dominant species but declined for 5 other populations.<ref>{{Cite journal |vauthors=Buglass S, Donner SD, Alemu I JB |date=March 2016 |title=A study on the recovery of Tobago's coral reefs following the 2010 mass bleaching event |journal=Marine Pollution Bulletin |volume=104 |issue=1–2 |pages=198–206 |doi=10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.01.038 |pmid=26856646 |bibcode=2016MarPB.104..198B |hdl-access=free |hdl=2429/51752}}</ref>