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Annual surveys conducted by the Coral Reef Evaluation and Monitoring Project (CREMP) reported that average benthic cover of stony corals in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, USA declined from~ 13% in 1996 to 8% in 2009. Keys-wide, mean species richness (SR) declined by~ 2.3 species per station. Stress due to temperature extremes is suspected to be a major driver of this trend. We tested the potential for sea surface temperature (SST) variability and acute warm-temperature events (assessed with Degree Heating Weeks) to affect stony coral diversity in the Florida Keys. Benthic cover of 43 stony coral species was examined with respect to SST variability and habitat type (patch, offshore shallow, and offshore deep reefs). For each CREMP site, SST annual variance was classified as low (< 7.0 C 2), intermediate (7.0 to 10.9 C 2), or high (≥ 11.0 C 2). Nonparametric MANOVA analyses showed that …