title: Resilience of branching and massive corals to wave loading under sea level rise--a coupled computational fluid dynamics-structural analysis.
abstract: Measurements of coral structural strength are coupled with a fluid dynamics-structural analysis to investigate the resilience of coral to wave loading under sea level rise and a typical Great Barrier Reef lagoon wave climate. The measured structural properties were used to determine the wave conditions and flow velocities that lead to structural failure. Hydrodynamic modelling was subsequently used to investigate the type of the bathymetry where coral is most vulnerable to breakage under cyclonic wave conditions, and how sea level rise (SLR) changes this vulnerability. Massive corals are determined not to be vulnerable to wave induced structural damage, whereas branching corals are susceptible at wave induced orbital velocities exceeding 0.5m/s. Model results from a large suite of idealised bathymetry suggest that SLR of 1m or a loss of skeleton strength of order 25% significantly increases the area of reef flat where branching corals are exposed to damaging wave induced flows.
authors.affiliation: School of Civil Engineering, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia. Electronic address: t.baldock@uq.edu.au.
authors.forename: Tom E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Baldock
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD 4222, Australia.
authors.forename: Hassan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Karampour
authors.affiliation: School of Civil Engineering, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Rachael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sleep
authors.affiliation: School of Civil Engineering, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Anisha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vyltla
authors.affiliation: School of Civil Engineering, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Faris
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Albermani
authors.affiliation: School of Civil Engineering, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Aliasghar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Golshani
authors.affiliation: School of Civil Engineering, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: David P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Callaghan
authors.affiliation: Marine Spatial Ecology Lab, School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Roff
authors.affiliation: Marine Spatial Ecology Lab, School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Mumby
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D037421:Anthozoa / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D057231:Climate Change; D057894:Coral Reefs; D057446:Hydrodynamics; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D014872:Water Movements
keywords: Coral; Coral breakage; Reef bathymetry; Sea level rise; Structural properties; Wave loading