Abstract
The persistence and habitability of coral reef islands in future extreme oceanographic conditions has received increasing attention in the recent decade, concerning that the sea level rise (SLR) and more frequent and intense storms in the context of global climate change are expected to destabilize those islands. Here, we conduct a set of wave-flume laboratory experiments focusing on the morphodynamic change of reef islands to varying ocean forcing conditions (wave height and SLR). Subsequently, a phase-resolving XBeach numerical model is adopted to simulate the monochromatic wave process and its associated sediment dynamics. The adopted model is also firstly validated by laboratory experimental results as reported in this study. It is then used to examine the impacts of island morphological factors (island width, island height, island location and island side slope) on the island migration. The combined laboratory/physical and numerical experiment outputs suggest that reef islands can accrete vertically in response to the sea level rise and the increased storminess.
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Foundation item: The National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract Nos 51979013 and 51909013; the National Key Research and Development Program of China under contract Nos 2021YFC3100502 and 2021YFB2601105; the Hainan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China under contract No. 421QN0978.
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Yao, Y., Zhou, B., Zhao, Z. et al. An investigation of the morphodynamic change of reef islands under monochromatic waves. Acta Oceanol. Sin. 42, 41–50 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-023-2156-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-023-2156-z