Climate change: Impact of sea level rise on reef flat zonation and productivity

Abstract

Responses of reef flats to sea level rise in the twenty-first century will likely be many and varied. The response in each case will depend on specific reef characteristics and environmental setting: the existing height of the reef relative to sea level; the local tidal range and rate of sea-level rise; the existing composition and zonation of coral assemblages, and hence susceptibility to the exacerbating effect of pseudo sea-level rise; the changing ecology with changed environmental conditions and disturbance regimes; and propensity for old and new sediments to be transported by wave action. The only generalization is that the response of coral reefs will not be the same in all locations.