The only generalization is that the response of coral reefs
will not be the same in all locations.
Bibliography
Bayliss-Smith, T. P., 1988. The role of hurricanes in the development of reef islands, Ontong Java Atoll, Solomon Islands. Geographical Journal, 154, 377–391.
Davies, P. J., and Hopley, D., 1983. Growth facies and growth rates
of Holocene reefs in the Great Barrier Reef. Bureau Mineral
Resources Journal, Australian Geology and Geophysics, 8,
237–251.
Emery, K. O., Tracey, J. I., and Ladd, H. S., 1954. Geology of Bikini
and nearby atolls. US Geological Survey Professional Papers
26-A, 1–265.
Falk, J., and Brownlow, A., 1989. The Greenhouse Challenge:
What’s to be Done? Ringwood, Vic: Penguin Books.
Gourlay, M. R., and Hacker, J. L. F., 1991. Raine Island Coastal
Processes and Sedimentology. Univ. of Qld. Dept. of Civil Engineering Report CH40/91 þ Appendices, 68pp.
Henderson-Sellers, A., and Blong, R., 1989. The Greenhouse
Effect: Living in a Warmer Australia. NSW Univ.
Hopley, D., 1982. The Geomorphology of the Great Barrier Reef:
Quaternary Development of Coral Reefs. New York: John Wiley
Interscience, 453pp.
Hopley, D., and Kinsey, D. W., 1988. The effects of rapid short-term
sea rise on the Great Barrier Reef. In Pearman, G. I. (ed.), Greenhouse: Planning for Climate Change, CSIRO, pp. 189–201.
Hopley, D., 1993. Coral reef islands in a period of global sea-level
rise. In Saxena, N. (ed.), Recent Advances in Marine Science
and Technology ‘92, PACON Conference, Honolulu, 1992,
pp. 453–462.
Hopley, D., 1997. Coral reef islands – implications of more modest
global change predictions. In Saxena, N. (ed.), Recent Advances
in Marine Science and Technology, 96, PACON96, pp. 249–258.
Hopley, D., Smithers, S. G., and Parnell, K. E., 2007. The Geomorphology of the Great Barrier Reef: Development, Diversity and
Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 532pp.
Kan, H., Nakashima, Y., and Hopley, D., 1997. Coral communities
during structured development of a fringing reef flat, Hayman
Island, the Great Barrier Reef. In Proceedings of the 8th International Coral Reef Symposium, 1, 465–470.
Kench, P. S., and Brander, R. W., 2006. Wave processes on coral
reef flats: implications for reef geomorphology using Australian
case studies. Journal of Coastal Research, 22, 209–223.
Kinsey, D. W., 1985. Metabolism, calcification and carbon production: 1 Systems level studies. Proceedings of the 5th International Coral Reef Congress, Tahiti, 4, 505–526.
Maragos, J. F., Baines, G. B. R., and Beveridge, P. J., 1973. Tropical
cyclones create a new land formation in Funafuti Atoll. Science,
181, 1161–1164.
Sheppard, C., Dixon, D. J., Gourlay, M. R., Sheppard, A., and
Payet, R., 2005. Coral mortality increases wave energy reaching
shores protected by reef flats: examples from the Seychelles.
Estuararine Coastal and Shelf Science, 64, 223–234.
Cross-references
Accommodation Space
Climate Change: Impact On Coral Reef Coasts
Climate Change and Coral Reefs
Geomorphic Zonation
Hydrodynamics of Coral Reef Systems
Recent Sea Level Trends
Reef Flats
Sediment Dynamics
CLIMATE CHANGE: IMPACT ON CORAL REEF
COASTS
Charles Sheppard
University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
Definition
Climate change is impacting directly on coral reef coasts.
When warm spikes, superimposed on a long-term gradual
warming trend, cause massive mortality of corals, the elevation of the shallow reef relative to the shore is lowered,
thereby increasing the wave energy that reaches the shore
and the consequent erosion of low lying shores.
Introduction
A primary service supplied by coral reefs to the human
communities which live near them is that of shoreline protection. Infrastructure and settlements occur along the
shorelines of many hundreds of atolls, as well as along
thousands of kilometers of shoreline of high islands. They
are all protected to a considerable extent by the breakwater
effect provided by coral reefs that fringe those shores. The
reef’s service in this respect is invaluable, but quantification of the effects and costs caused by their degradation
lags well behind many of the better studied biological
effects. Much of what we do know derives from engineering models.
The main impacts are caused by increases in the
amount of wave energy which strikes the shoreline when
the adjacent reef deteriorates, and when its elevation
drops relative to sea level. In the recent past, this form
of deterioration has come mainly from coral extraction
to obtain limestone for building purposes, and from coral
mortality caused by diseases. Now, and in the foreseeable future, it will be compounded by effects of global
warming.
Traditional extraction of corals for use as building
material, both as whole colonies or as excavated blocks
of reef, has occurred for centuries. Perhaps the best known
example of this has taken place in the Maldives, where the
lack until recently of any significant quantity of alternative
building material has meant that the reef flats around several settlements, especially the capital Malé, have been
severely excavated. There are no good estimates of quantities taken, but it seems likely that around Malé the reef
flat appears to have been excavated by local people to such
an extent that they have lowered its elevation relative to
sea level by at least half a meter.
Coral mortality from disease has especially affected the
elevation of reef crests in the Caribbean. Until the 1980s
the shallowest zone of corals comprised Elkhorn coral,
Acropora palmata (Geister, 1977). This species grows
upward to reach the low water mark in very dense thickets
of over 2 m tall, even protruding above the water at low
tides. However, over much of the Caribbean, these shallow water reefs have now disintegrated almost completely.
214
CLIMATE CHANGE: IMPACT ON CORAL REEF COASTS
will not be the same in all locations.
Bibliography
Bayliss-Smith, T. P., 1988. The role of hurricanes in the development of reef islands, Ontong Java Atoll, Solomon Islands. Geographical Journal, 154, 377–391.
Davies, P. J., and Hopley, D., 1983. Growth facies and growth rates
of Holocene reefs in the Great Barrier Reef. Bureau Mineral
Resources Journal, Australian Geology and Geophysics, 8,
237–251.
Emery, K. O., Tracey, J. I., and Ladd, H. S., 1954. Geology of Bikini
and nearby atolls. US Geological Survey Professional Papers
26-A, 1–265.
Falk, J., and Brownlow, A., 1989. The Greenhouse Challenge:
What’s to be Done? Ringwood, Vic: Penguin Books.
Gourlay, M. R., and Hacker, J. L. F., 1991. Raine Island Coastal
Processes and Sedimentology. Univ. of Qld. Dept. of Civil Engineering Report CH40/91 þ Appendices, 68pp.
Henderson-Sellers, A., and Blong, R., 1989. The Greenhouse
Effect: Living in a Warmer Australia. NSW Univ.
Hopley, D., 1982. The Geomorphology of the Great Barrier Reef:
Quaternary Development of Coral Reefs. New York: John Wiley
Interscience, 453pp.
Hopley, D., and Kinsey, D. W., 1988. The effects of rapid short-term
sea rise on the Great Barrier Reef. In Pearman, G. I. (ed.), Greenhouse: Planning for Climate Change, CSIRO, pp. 189–201.
Hopley, D., 1993. Coral reef islands in a period of global sea-level
rise. In Saxena, N. (ed.), Recent Advances in Marine Science
and Technology ‘92, PACON Conference, Honolulu, 1992,
pp. 453–462.
Hopley, D., 1997. Coral reef islands – implications of more modest
global change predictions. In Saxena, N. (ed.), Recent Advances
in Marine Science and Technology, 96, PACON96, pp. 249–258.
Hopley, D., Smithers, S. G., and Parnell, K. E., 2007. The Geomorphology of the Great Barrier Reef: Development, Diversity and
Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 532pp.
Kan, H., Nakashima, Y., and Hopley, D., 1997. Coral communities
during structured development of a fringing reef flat, Hayman
Island, the Great Barrier Reef. In Proceedings of the 8th International Coral Reef Symposium, 1, 465–470.
Kench, P. S., and Brander, R. W., 2006. Wave processes on coral
reef flats: implications for reef geomorphology using Australian
case studies. Journal of Coastal Research, 22, 209–223.
Kinsey, D. W., 1985. Metabolism, calcification and carbon production: 1 Systems level studies. Proceedings of the 5th International Coral Reef Congress, Tahiti, 4, 505–526.
Maragos, J. F., Baines, G. B. R., and Beveridge, P. J., 1973. Tropical
cyclones create a new land formation in Funafuti Atoll. Science,
181, 1161–1164.
Sheppard, C., Dixon, D. J., Gourlay, M. R., Sheppard, A., and
Payet, R., 2005. Coral mortality increases wave energy reaching
shores protected by reef flats: examples from the Seychelles.
Estuararine Coastal and Shelf Science, 64, 223–234.
Cross-references
Accommodation Space
Climate Change: Impact On Coral Reef Coasts
Climate Change and Coral Reefs
Geomorphic Zonation
Hydrodynamics of Coral Reef Systems
Recent Sea Level Trends
Reef Flats
Sediment Dynamics
CLIMATE CHANGE: IMPACT ON CORAL REEF
COASTS
Charles Sheppard
University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
Definition
Climate change is impacting directly on coral reef coasts.
When warm spikes, superimposed on a long-term gradual
warming trend, cause massive mortality of corals, the elevation of the shallow reef relative to the shore is lowered,
thereby increasing the wave energy that reaches the shore
and the consequent erosion of low lying shores.
Introduction
A primary service supplied by coral reefs to the human
communities which live near them is that of shoreline protection. Infrastructure and settlements occur along the
shorelines of many hundreds of atolls, as well as along
thousands of kilometers of shoreline of high islands. They
are all protected to a considerable extent by the breakwater
effect provided by coral reefs that fringe those shores. The
reef’s service in this respect is invaluable, but quantification of the effects and costs caused by their degradation
lags well behind many of the better studied biological
effects. Much of what we do know derives from engineering models.
The main impacts are caused by increases in the
amount of wave energy which strikes the shoreline when
the adjacent reef deteriorates, and when its elevation
drops relative to sea level. In the recent past, this form
of deterioration has come mainly from coral extraction
to obtain limestone for building purposes, and from coral
mortality caused by diseases. Now, and in the foreseeable future, it will be compounded by effects of global
warming.
Traditional extraction of corals for use as building
material, both as whole colonies or as excavated blocks
of reef, has occurred for centuries. Perhaps the best known
example of this has taken place in the Maldives, where the
lack until recently of any significant quantity of alternative
building material has meant that the reef flats around several settlements, especially the capital Malé, have been
severely excavated. There are no good estimates of quantities taken, but it seems likely that around Malé the reef
flat appears to have been excavated by local people to such
an extent that they have lowered its elevation relative to
sea level by at least half a meter.
Coral mortality from disease has especially affected the
elevation of reef crests in the Caribbean. Until the 1980s
the shallowest zone of corals comprised Elkhorn coral,
Acropora palmata (Geister, 1977). This species grows
upward to reach the low water mark in very dense thickets
of over 2 m tall, even protruding above the water at low
tides. However, over much of the Caribbean, these shallow water reefs have now disintegrated almost completely.
214
CLIMATE CHANGE: IMPACT ON CORAL REEF COASTS