Impact of storm waves and storm floods on Hawaiian reefs (original) (raw)
Major storms are infrequent events of high intensity and short duration that can exert a profound influence the structure of Hawaiian reefs. Extreme wave energy directly damages corals and retards coral community development. A paradox is that storm surf also represents a positive factor that maintains vitality of many communities through the mobilization and removal of terrigenous, calcareous and organic sediments that otherwise will smother a reef system. Flood events erode watersheds and deposit sediments on the reefs that can kill corals and block recruitment of new coral colonies. Fresh water delivered by storms also can lower local salinity to levels that are lethal to corals and other reef organisms. Nutrients and pollutants associated with fresh water runoff are transported onto coral reefs during such storms. The impact of these events is poorly understood for several reasons. These events are very transient in nature and seldom are observed directly on reefs due to difficulties in making observations during conditions of extreme wave motion or turbidity. The duration of most coral reef investigations is too short to allow evaluation of the major storm events that occur with a frequency of decades to hundreds of years. The pattern of impact for a major storm is highly complex, and influenced by local bathymetry, shoreline topography and directionality of the storm event. Nevertheless, sufficient data are available to provide a general spatial and temporal description of the relative importance of major storm waves and storm floods on reefs throughout the main Hawaiian Islands. The relative impact of wave damage, damage due to terrigenous sediment runoff and damage due to factors associated with fresh water are described for the major Hawaiian coral reef habitats.
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