Cross-reef wave and water level data from coral reef environments (ver. 3.0, January 2024)

Coral reefs provide important protection for tropical coastlines against the impact of large waves and storm damage by energy dissipation through wave breaking and bottom friction. However, climate change and sea level rise have led to growing concern for how the hydrodynamics across these reefs will evolve and whether these changes will leave tropical coastlines more vulnerable to large wave events. Because the majority of reef flats are depth-limited, offshore water levels (tides) strongly control the ability of waves to propagate across a reef and impact the shoreline. In addition to offshore water levels, wave breaking also drives waters onto reefs and thus contributes to reef water levels; as offshore waves...

Categories: Data Release - Revised; Tags: Marine Geology

Waiakane, Molokai, HI, 2018 Coral Reef Circulation and Sediment Dynamics Experiment

Coral reefs generate significant volumes of carbonate sediment that becomes the primary source of beach material along many low-latitude shorelines that protect hundreds of millions of people globally. Despite this fact, there is little understanding of the specific processes that transport the carbonate sediment produced on the outer portions of coral reefs to the shoreline, let alone how those processes may be affected by projected sea-level rise. To better constrain the influence of sea-level rise on waves and sediment transport over a fringing coral reef flat, an experiment was conducted across a large fringing reef off the south shore of Molokai, Hawai’i. Here we provide data on water levels, waves, currents...

Jurabi, Exmouth, Western Australia, 2016 Coral Reef Circulation and Sediment Dynamics Experiment

Carbonate reefs are a major source of sediment for coastlines in much of the tropical regions of the world, contributing to significant shoreline accretion and beach nourishment. A collaborative experiment between the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Western Australia was conducted on Ningaloo Reef, northwest Australia, to investigate this problem and determine the primary oceanographic processes responsible for cross-reef sediment transport. Data will be added to this folder as they are published.

Categories: Data; Tags: CMHRP, Coastal and Marine Hazards an dResources Program, Jurabi Coastal Park, Jurabi Point, Ningaloo Marine Park, All tags... PCMSC, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, USGS, Western Australia, Fewer tags

Modeled effects of depth and semidiurnal temperature fluctuations on predictions of year that coral reef locations reach annual severe bleaching for various global climate model projections

Using global climate model projections of sea-surface temperature at coral reef sites, we modeled the effects of depth and exposure to semidiurnal temperature fluctuations to examine how these effects may alter the projected year of annual severe bleaching for coral reef sites globally. Here we present the first global maps of the effects these processes have on bleaching projections for three IPCC-AR5 emissions scenarios.

Tags: CMHRP, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, PCMSC, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, All tags... USGS, climate change, coastal processes, coastal processes, coral reefs, geoscientificInformation, none, numerical modeling, oceans, reef, temperature, water column features, water level, waves, Fewer tags

Time series data of oceanographic conditions from La Parguera, Puerto Rico, 2017-2018 Coral Reef Circulation and Sediment Dynamics Experiment

Time-series data of water surface elevation, waves, currents, temperature, and salinity collected between 17 May 2017 and 17 Jan 2018 off the southwest coast of Puerto Rico in support of a study on circulation and sediment transport dynamics over coral reefs. The data are available in NetCDF format, grouped together in zip files by instrument site location. A README.txt file details the files contained within each zip, including the file names, type of data collected, instrument that collected the data, depth, and start and end dates/times.

Categories: Data; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: Bahia de Guanica, CMHRP, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Hydrology, All tags... La Parguera, Marine Geology, PCMSC, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, USGS, Water Column Features, Water Quality, geoscientificInformation, marine water quality, ocean currents, ocean salinity, ocean waves, oceans, physical oceanography, salinity/density, time series datasets, water level measurements, water pressure, water temperature, wave observations, Fewer tags

Time-series data of water surface elevation, waves, currents, temperature, and turbidity collected between November 2017 and March 2018 off the west coast of Maui, Hawaii, USA

Time-series data of water surface elevation, waves, currents, temperature, and turbidity collected between November 2017 and March 2018 off the west coast of Maui, Hawaii, USA. The data are available in NetCDF format, grouped together in zip files by instrument site location. These data support a modeling study on the effects of potential watershed restoration on decreasing sediment loads to adjacent reefs (Storlazzi and others, 2023).

Categories: Data; Tags: CMHRP, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Hydrology, Marine Geology, Maui, All tags... PCMSC, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, State of Hawaii, U.S. Geological Survey, USGS, Water Column Features, Water Quality, geoscientificInformation, marine water quality, ocean currents, ocean waves, oceans, physical oceanography, time series datasets, water level measurements, water pressure, water temperature, water turbidity, wave observations, Fewer tags

Observations of coral reef oceanographic and groundwater properties off Makua, Kauai, HI, USA, August 2016

Pervasive and sustained coral diseases contribute to the systemic degradation of reef ecosystems, however, an understanding of the physicochemical controls on a coral disease event is still largely lacking. Water circulation and residence times and submarine groundwater discharge all determine the degree to which reef organisms are exposed to the variable chemistry of overlying waters; understanding these physical controls is necessary to interpret spatial patterns in coral health. The recent discovery of coral Black Band Disease at Mākua Reef on Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi prompted an investigation into the physicochemical drivers and geomorphic controls of reef water circulation, and the temporally variable nutrient fluxes...