Impact details: breakage and dislodgement

impact chain for tropical coastal areas / storms (click nodes to view details):
selected case study results:
Case study reference
Spatial context
Impact description (case study)
Case study recommendations
Foster, K. A., Foster, G., Tourenq, C., & Shuriqi, M. K. (2011). Shifts in coral community structures following cyclone and red tide disturbances within the Gulf of Oman (United Arab Emirates). Marine biology, 158(5), 955-968. Arabian Peninsula: United Arab Emirates Cyclone Gonu hit the Gulf of Oman in June 2007. Storm damage caused > 50% losses of live branching and tabular coral cover by fragmentation and dislodgment of pocilloporid and acroporid colonies.
Physical damage to coral varied considerably between sites, depending primarily on colony morphology. Losses tend to be higher at locations with an abundance of branching and tabular colonies (53-56% losses). 		Conservation efforts should be implemented to minimise pressures and allow the coral sufficient time to recover.
Gleason, A. C., Lirman, D., Williams, D., Gracias, N. R., Gintert, B. E., Madjidi, H., ... Miller, M. (2007). Documenting hurricane impacts on coral reefs using two-dimensional video-mosaic technology. Marine Ecology, 28(2), 254-258. North America: USA Four hurricanes impacted the reefs of Florida in 2005: Dennis, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. Storm damage to Acropora palmata was surprisingly limited; only 2 out of 19 colonies were removed from the study plot at Molasses Reef. The net tissue losses for those colonies that remained were only 10% and mean diameter of colonies decreased slightly from 88.4 to 79.6 cm. In contrast, the damage to the reef framework was more severe, and a large section (6 m in diameter) was dislodged, overturned, and transported to the bottom of the reef spur. -
Jordan-Dahlgren, E., & Rodriguez-Martinez, R. E. (1998). Post-hurricane initial recovery of Acropora palmata in two reefs of the Yucatán Peninsula, México. Bulletin of marine science, 63(1), 213-228. Central America / Caribbean: Mexico The initial recovery process of Acropora palmata in two distant reefs, impacted in 1988 by a hurricane (class V) and a tropical storm, was analyzed for a five year period. Colonies of A. palmata are prone to storm damage because the species colonize the shallow areas of the reef, and its colonies show a relatively fragile branching growth-form. Quite variable conditions may exist after the storms impact inducing a patchiness which may be further enhanced by temporal replacement by other species, mostly algae. -
Bries, J. M., Debrot, A. O., & Meyer, D. L. (2004). Damage to the leeward reefs of Curacao and Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles from a rare storm event: Hurricane Lenny, November 1999. Coral Reefs, 23(2), 297-307. Central America/ Caribbean: Netherlands Antilles In November 1999, Hurricane Lenny took an unusual west-to-east track, bisecting the Caribbean Basin and passing approximately 200 miles north of Curacao and Bonaire. The leeward shores of both islands were pounded for 24 h by heavy waves (3-6 m) generated while the storm was centered far to the west. Reef damage surveys at 33 sites documented occurrences of toppling, fragmentation, tissue damage, bleaching, and smothering due to the storm. Reefs were severely damaged along westward-facing shores but less impacted where the reef front was tangential to the wave direction or was protected by offshore islands. At the most severely damaged sites, massive coral colonies 2-3-m high (older than 100 yr) were toppled or overturned, smaller corals were broken loose and tumbled across the shallow reef platform and either deposited on the shore or dropped onto the deeper forereef slope. Branching and plating growth forms suffered more damage than massive species and large colonies experienced greater damage than small colonies. In general, the fragile finger coral Madracis mirabilis incurred the most damage due to fragmentation and toppling, while massive, head, and plate corals fared better. -
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