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Abstract Coral reefs worldwide are threatened by thermal stress caused by climate change. Especially devastating periods of coral loss frequently occur during El Niño‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events originating in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP). El Niño‐induced thermal stress is considered the primary threat to ETP coral reefs. An increase in the frequency and intensity of ENSO events predicted in the coming decades threatens a pan‐tropical collapse of coral reefs. During the 1982–1983 El Niño, most reefs in the Galapagos Islands collapsed, and many more in the region were decimated by massive coral bleaching and mortality. However, after repeated thermal stress disturbances, such as those caused by the 1997–1998 El Niño, ETP corals reefs have demonstrated regional persistence and resiliency. Using a 44 year dataset (1970–2014) of live coral cover from the ETP, we assess whether ETP reefs exhibit the same decline as seen globally for other reefs. Also, we compare the ETP live coral cover rate of change with data from the maximum Degree Heating Weeks experienced by these reefs to assess the role of thermal stress on coral reef survival. We find that during the period 1970–2014, ETP coral cover exhibited temporary reductions following major ENSO events, but no overall decline. Further, we find that ETP reef recovery patterns allow coral to persist under these El Niño‐stressed conditions, often recovering from these events in 10–15 years. Accumulative heat stress explains 31% of the overall annual rate of change of living coral cover in the ETP. This suggests that ETP coral reefs have adapted to thermal extremes to date, and may have the ability to adapt to near‐term future climate‐change thermal anomalies. These findings for ETP reef resilience may provide general insights for the future of coral reef survival and recovery elsewhere under intensifying El Niño scenarios. 

“It ain’t necessarily so” – A favored mantra recited by R. K. Trench in the context of “received truth,” or established beliefs; and the title of his unfinished autobiography. Professor Robert (Bob) Kent Trench’s research career brought together multiple disciplines in the study of mutualistic symbioses that are crucial to understanding the physiology, ecology, and co-evolution of metazoan and protist associations, many of which are beneficial to the Earth’s biosphere. Through the development and use of complementary techniques, he pioneered important discoveries about metabolically coupled interactions between “plants” and animals. Having grown up in Belize (formerly British Honduras), his journey in academia started at the University College of the West Indies (UCWI) on the island nation of Jamaica, then proceeded to the University of California, Los Angeles (USA); Oxford University (UK); and Yale University (Connecticut, USA). He was a longtime faculty member in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara (Figs. 1a–f). Over the course of his life (August 3 1940–April 27 2021), he recognized that many things presented as fact were often accumulated dogma. His direct application of the scientific method ultimately helped to change these misconceptions. By deconstructing established ‘beliefs,’ he greatly improved our understanding of several mutualistic symbioses, and many of his insights and hypotheses published decades ago remain at the forefront of intense investigation to this day. 

Declining coral populations worldwide place a special premium on identifying risks and drivers that precipitate these declines. Understanding the relationship between disease outbreaks and their drivers can help to anticipate when the risk of a disease pandemic is high. Populations of the iconic branching Caribbean elkhorn coralAcropora palmatahave collapsed in recent decades, in part due to white pox disease (WPX). To assess the role that biotic and abiotic factors play in modulating coral disease, we present a predictive model for WPX inA. palmatausing 20 yr of disease surveys from the Florida Keys plus environmental information collected simultaneouslyin situand via satellite. We found that colony size was the most influential predictor for WPX occurrence, with larger colonies being at higher risk. Water quality parameters of dissolved oxygen saturation, total organic carbon, dissolved inorganic nitrogen, and salinity were implicated in WPX likelihood. Both low and high wind speeds were identified as important environmental drivers of WPX. While high temperature has been identified as an important cause of coral mortality in both bleaching and disease scenarios, our model indicates that the relative influence of HotSpot (positive summertime temperature anomaly) was low and actually inversely related to WPX risk. The predictive model developed here can contribute to enabling targeted strategic management actions and disease surveillance, enabling managers to treat the disease or mitigate disease drivers, thereby suppressing the disease and supporting the persistence of corals in an era of myriad threats.