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"Golbuu et al. examined recovery rates of coral communities on the Palauan reef complex at two depths (3 and 10 m) at several different sites (nine outer-reef wave-exposed sites, four on the east coast and five on the west coast; two patch reef sites; and two sheltered-bay sites) 3, 4 and 7 years after the 1998 El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-induced bleaching event.....Golbuu et al. write that "the recovery on some of Palau's reefs was similar to, albeit less rapid than, recovery on a lava flow reported by Tomascik et al. (1996)," in which "remarkable coral community development" occurred "on a bare andesitic lava substrate following a major volcanic eruption in the Banda Sea, Indonesia," where "in five years, coral coverage averaged over 60%, supporting 124 coral species." They also cite Guzman and Cortes (2001) in this regard, noting that the latter two researchers had found that "populations of massive and branched corals in 1997-1998 were more tolerant to elevated thermal stress than populations in 1982-1983 [when another ENSO-induced period of high sea surface temperatures occurred] in Costa Rica, where both events recorded similar warming trends and temperature maxima," which observations led the two scientists to suggest that over the time period between the two events, the region's corals "had adapted to these warmer conditions."
