Tropical cyclone/hurricane

Abstract

Cyclones often leave broad swathes of damage to coral reefs, with significant ecological and geological outcomes. The rotating structure of any single cyclone can cause structural damage and sediment transport in areas that are normally sheltered, initiating a period of ecological regeneration within physical and environmental settings that may be quite different from those present before the storm. Considered in the context of the Holocene period of transgression and reef development, a local cyclone regime that is too severe (in terms of frequency, intensity) may exclude coral reefs from some areas. Where the regime is more moderate, cyclones can be formative events in terms of both ecology (initiating a period of regeneration) and geomorphology (building islands; transforming reef-top morphology; facilitating lateral reef extension onto the adjacent shallow sea floor). With twenty-first century climate change, projected reduction in the reef-building performance of corals and increased severity and/or frequency of cyclone impacts have implications that are potentially important but as yet poorly understood (see entry Climate Change: Increasing Storm Activity).