This paper, using pre-storm, immediate post-storm and recovery data, quantifies seafloor elevation and volume change within the Looe Key Reef system of the Florida Keys Reef Tract over a 2.5-year period from 2016–2019 and to examine impacts from category-4 Hurricane Irma and post-storm re-equilibration of seafloor sediments. The study highlights the need to data collected over seasonal and annual time periods to improve characterization and understanding of short-term (event-driven, seasonal, interannual) and long-term (decadal to multi-decadal) rates and processes of seafloor change and help guide benthic habitat post-storm recovery and restoration efforts in topographically complex coral reef systems.
This paper, using pre-storm, immediate post-storm and recovery data, quantifies seafloor...
Global understanding of storm-driven sediment transport along coral reefs and its impact on species and habitats is limited. Measurement of seafloor elevation and volume change due to a category 4 hurricane showed rapid burial of coral reef habitats and migration of large seafloor features due to the storm. Post-storm erosion rates were 2 orders of magnitude greater than historical rates, indicating areas of seafloor instability that could be less suitable for restoration of benthic species.
Global understanding of storm-driven sediment transport along coral reefs and its impact on...