[Coral-List] What about Marshall Islands coral reefs?

[Storlazzi, Curt D]

Vassil,

The issue is that sea level is rising and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (and most atolls) are only 1-2 m above mean sea level. And as most know, those coral reef platforms on which those atoll islands sit are basically blocks of Swiss cheese - not solid like individual coral heads, but with a lot of open space and thus hydraulic conductivity that allows water to quickly move through the platforms and islands. Hence why you to see tidal oscillations in wells or on open ponds on the islands. Thus, the lined, concrete dumps holding all waste (including those referenced in this article) are getting more frequently and more intensely impacted by seawater as sea levels rise. And we know most man-made things (concrete, steel, etc) do not do well with exposure to seawater, degrading and often failing in time.

We (USGS, NOAA, academia, and research partners) tried to understand some of the basic processes that occur on atoll reefs and their associated islands to better forecast when such issues may start to occur so frequently that undesirable thresholds would be exceeded. See the US government report here (especially the Discussion):

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD1053105.pdf

And the associated, higher-level scientific article here:

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aap9741

Sadly, the degradation of coral reefs will just exacerbate the issue, as erosion of reef structure and loss of live coral cover will reduce the height of the reef and hydrodynamic roughness, thus increasing the frequency and magnitude of coastal flooding, per:

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2015GL064861

These all should be open-access.

Our job now is to try to figure out how to best address the issues, from purely gray engineering to nature-based (e.g. - coral ref restoration) solutions. And, to be exact, the US Department of Defense is considering coral reefs as part of the solution, per:

https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2020-12-17

Please let me know if you have any additional comments or questions.

Curt
---------------------------------------------------
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


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From: Coral-List <coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> on behalf of coral-list-request at coral.aoml.noaa.gov <coral-list-request at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Sent: Tuesday, March 5, 2024 9:00 AM

Message: 1
Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2024 10:43:34 -0500
From: Vassil Zlatarski <vzlatarski at gmail.com>
To: Coral-List Subscribers <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Subject: [Coral-List] What about Marshall Islands coral reefs?
Message-ID:
        <CAA9Piv3HG=Mn4S0GqKHio8fFnfRgyn_Lp7BLcSizJqabPbv6Hw at mail.gmail.com>
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 A new report says melting ice sheets and rising seas could disturb waste
from U.S. nuclear projects in Greenland and the Marshall Islands.

https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapple.news%2FApVnDj5O5TCae_RjLiylrqw%2F&data=05%7C02%7Ccstorlazzi%40usgs.gov%7C97da5c17ddea4f3549cc08dc3d372739%7C0693b5ba4b184d7b9341f32f400a5494%7C0%7C0%7C638452554292226507%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=zKPkZwlWRDV8BRd4Vhu2amCoGjL0NfM8tDR2RRad9vk%3D&reserved=0<https://apple.news/ApVnDj5O5TCae_RjLiylrqw/>

Let's hear from the coral reef experts.

Thanks,

Vassill


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