Coral reef structural complexity loss exposes coastlines to waves

Coral reefs offer natural coastal protection by attenuating incoming waves. Here we combine unique coral disturbance-recovery observations with hydrodynamic models to quantify how structural complexity dissipates incoming wave energy. We find that if the structural complexity of healthy coral reefs...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inScientific reports Vol. 13; no. 1; p. 1683
Main Authors Carlot, Jérémy, Vousdoukas, Michalis, Rovere, Alessio, Karambas, Theofanis, Lenihan, Hunter S., Kayal, Mohsen, Adjeroud, Mehdi, Pérez-Rosales, Gonzalo, Hedouin, Laetitia, Parravicini, Valeriano
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Nature Publishing Group UK 30.01.2023
Nature Publishing Group
Nature Portfolio
Subjects
631/158/1144
631/158/2458
704/106/694/2739/2807
704/106/829/2737
Animals
Anthozoa
Biodiversity and Ecology
Coastal zone management
Coral Reefs
Earth Sciences
Ecosystem
Energy dissipation
Environmental protection
Environmental Sciences
Estimates
Floods
Humanities and Social Sciences
Hydrodynamics
multidisciplinary
Oceanography
Pressure transducers
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Sciences of the Universe
Wave energy
Wave power
Wave runup
Waves
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Summary:Coral reefs offer natural coastal protection by attenuating incoming waves. Here we combine unique coral disturbance-recovery observations with hydrodynamic models to quantify how structural complexity dissipates incoming wave energy. We find that if the structural complexity of healthy coral reefs conditions is halved, extreme wave run-up heights that occur once in a 100-years will become 50 times more frequent, threatening reef-backed coastal communities with increased waves, erosion, and flooding.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
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ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-023-28945-x