[Coral-List] new paper on the potential for coral reef restoration to mitigate coastal flooding as sea levels rise

[Storlazzi, Curt D]

Dear reefers,

I am happy to share a new effort led by Lauren Toth and colleagues that provides insight into not only how coral reef degradation in the Caribbean can result in increased coastal flooding, but the scale of restoration efforts needed to offset that threat and the timeframes over which it must be done to be effective. This was published last Friday in Nature - Communications; please find the abstract and link to the article below.

TITLE

The potential for coral reef restoration to mitigate coastal flooding as sea levels rise

ABSTRACT


The ability of reefs to protect coastlines from storm-driven flooding hinges on their capacity to keep pace with sea-level rise. Here, we show how and whether coral restoration could achieve the often-cited goal of reversing the impacts of coral-reef degradation to preserve this essential function. We combined coral-growth measurements and carbonate-budget assessments of reef-accretion potential at Buck Island Reef, U.S. Virgin Islands, with hydrodynamic modeling to quantify future coastal flooding under various coral-restoration, sea-level rise, and storm scenarios. Our results provide guidance on how restoration of Acropora palmata, if successful, could mitigate the most extreme impacts of coastal flooding by reversing projected trajectories of reef erosion and allowing reefs to keep pace with the ~0.5 m of sea-level rise expected by 2100 with moderate carbon-emissions reductions. This highlights the potential long-term benefits of pursuing coral-reef restoration alongside climate-change mitigation to support the persistence of essential coral-reef ecosystem services.

The open-access article can be found at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37858-2
[https://media.springernature.com/m685/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41467-023-37858-2/MediaObjects/41467_2023_37858_Fig1_HTML.png]<https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37858-2>
The potential for coral reef restoration to mitigate coastal flooding as sea levels rise - Nature Communications<https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37858-2>
The capacity of coral reefs to keep pace with sea-level rise is central to their ability to continue to provide shoreline protection to vulnerable coastal communities. Here, the study shows that whereas restoration has the potential to minimize climate-change impacts, doing nothing will amplify them.
www.nature.com
Enjoy!

Curt

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Curt D. Storlazzi, Ph.D.

U.S. Geological Survey
Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
2885 Mission Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
+1-831-460-7521 office
+1-831-295-3429 cell
https://www.usgs.gov/staff-profiles/curt-d-storlazzi