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Coral reefs are globally in decline and western Atlantic reefs have experienced the greatest losses in live coral cover of any region. The Flower Garden Banks (FGB) in the Gulf of Mexico are high-latitude, remote reefs that are an outlier to this trend, as they have maintained coral cover ≥ 50% since at least 1989. Quantifying the long-term trends in coral growth of key reef-building coral species, and the underlying environmental drivers, leads to a better understanding of local sensitivities to past changes that will ultimately allow us to better predict the future of reef growth at FGB. We obtained coral cores and constructed growth records for two of the most abundant hermatypic coral species at FGB,  Pseudodiploria strigosa  and  Orbicella faveolata.  Our records cover 57 yrs of growth for  P. strigosa  (1957–2013) and 45 yrs for  O. faveolata  (1970–2014). Linear extension and calcification rates of both species have increased significantly, but skeletal density did not change over the respective time periods. Extension and calcification data of both species combined were negatively correlated with the discharge from the Atchafalaya River, but positively correlated with maximum sea surface temperatures (SST). These data provide evidence that runoff from the Atchafalaya River impacts FGB corals and is a major control on coral growth at FGB. The increase in growth at FGB can be attributed to the significant warming trend in maximum monthly SSTs. Given the warming trend and recent increase in severity of bleaching at FGB, the prognosis is that bleaching events will become more deleterious with time, which will lead to a breakdown in the positive relationship between coral growth and maximum SST. This study provides further evidence that some high-latitude, cooler reef sites have experienced a stimulation in coral growth with ocean warming.

Increasing coral calcification in Orbicella faveolata and Pseudodiploria strigosa at Flower Garden Banks, Gulf of Mexico