Spectral wave-driven sediment transport across a fringing reef

Response of reef corals on a fringing reef flat to elevated suspended-sediment concentrations: Molokaʻi, Hawaiʻi

A long-term (10 month exposure) experiment on effects of suspended sediment on the mortality, growth, and recruitment of the reef corals Montipora capitata and Porites compressa was conducted on the shallow reef flat off south Moloka'i, Hawai'i. Corals were grown on wire platforms with attached coral recruitment tiles along a suspended solid concentration (SSC) gradient that ranged from 37 mg l...

Wave setup over a Pacific Island fringing reef

Experimental and Numerical Studies on Wave Breaking Characteristics over a Fringing Reef under Monochromatic Wave Conditions

Fringing reefs play an important role in protecting the coastal area by inducing wave breaking and wave energy dissipation. However, modeling of wave transformation and energy dissipation on this topography is still difficult due to the unique structure. In the present study, two-dimensional laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate the cross-shore variations of wave transformation, ...

Ocean Transport Pathways to a World Heritage Fringing Coral Reef: Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia

A Lagrangian particle tracking model driven by a regional ocean circulation model was used to investigate the seasonally varying connectivity patterns within the shelf circulation surrounding the 300 km long Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia (WA) during 2009-2010. Forward-in-time simulations revealed that surface water was transported equatorward and offshore in summer due to the upwelling-fav...

The influence of sea level rise and changes in fringing reef morphology on gradients in alongshore sediment transport

[1] Climate-change-induced alterations to coral reef ecosystems, in combination with sea level rise, have the potential to significantly alter wave dissipation across reefs, leading to shifts in alongshore sediment transport gradients and alterations to tropical coastlines. We used Delft3D to model schematized profiles of two reef flat widths based on the south Molokai, Hawaii coast. Simulated ...