A marine scientist has observed that as hurricanes and other extreme coastal weather events get stronger, they cause greater destruction to fragile coral reefs.
This spells bad news for residents of waterside areas and the reef breaks that are prized by the surfing community.
What's happening?
As Surfer detailed, warming ocean temperatures are making coral populations more fragile, and faced with the growing intensity of hurricanes and cyclones, reefs are struggling to withstand the brunt of extreme weather.
Scientists like Dr. Deborah Brosnan, a climate risk expert, are examining the degradation of reefs in real-time.
"In some cases, hurricanes are getting more intense, and the reason they're getting more intense so fast is because ocean temperatures are the hottest they've ever been." Dr. Brosnan said.
"The hotter the ocean, the faster the strength of a hurricane accelerates. With [Hurricane] Helene and Milton, it took 24 to 48 hours for it to go to a category four or five, which was just unprecedented. So we're getting bigger waves."
Why are coral reefs important?
Coral reefs can function as a sort of last line of defense against intense weather such as hurricanes, so their decline will put coastal communities at greater risk.
Dr. Brosnan cited the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami as an example, which saw huge waves hit the shores of Sri Lanka following an earthquake.
She observed that in areas where reefs had been mined previously, the tsunami waves traveled further and caused more damage than they otherwise would have.
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Definitely 👍 "You literally could see how the presence of reefs helped to reduce the wave action and cause less damage and less disturbance," she said.
Bronson says that once coral reefs die out, that protection disappears, and a vital part of ocean biodiversity dies with it.
What's being done to protect coral reefs?
Thankfully, much is already being done to circumvent the issue and reduce the warming planet's impact on our oceans and reefs.
Dr. Brosnan is with local surfers on a project in the Caribbean meant to create new reefs that mimic their natural counterparts, and calls surfers the "eyes and ears" of the project, as they know best when it comes to finding new reefs and knowing where they go.
Other recent solutions include an artificial intelligence (AI) tool developed by a team of scientists at MIT that can accurately predict flooding following a large storm like a hurricane.
A small team of environmental and ocean scientists in Australia, called Whale X, has also discovered that whale feces have been efficiently capturing carbon for millions of years and has found a way to replicate this process in our oceans.
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