Rising sea levels will reduce extreme temperature variations in tide-dominated reef habitats
Lowe, Ryan Joseph, Pivan, Xavier, Falter, James, Symonds, Graham, and Gruber, Renee (2016) Rising sea levels will reduce extreme temperature variations in tide-dominated reef habitats. Science Advances, 2 (8). e1600825.
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Abstract
Temperatures within shallow reefs often differ substantially from those in the surrounding ocean; therefore, predicting future patterns of thermal stresses and bleaching at the scale of reefs depends on accurately predicting reef heat budgets. We present a new framework for quantifying how tidal and solar heating cycles interact with reef morphology to control diurnal temperature extremes within shallow, tidally forced reefs. Using data from northwestern Australia, we construct a heat budget model to investigate how frequency differences between the dominant lunar semidiurnal tide and diurnal solar cycle drive ~15-day modulations in diurnal temperature extremes. The model is extended to show how reefs with tidal amplitudes comparable to their depth, relative to mean sea level, tend to experience the largest temperature extremes globally. As a consequence, we reveal how even a modest sea level rise can substantially reduce temperature extremes within tide-dominated reefs, thereby partially offsetting the local effects of future ocean warming.
| Item ID: | 92642 |
|---|---|
| Item Type: | Article (Refereed Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 2375-2548 |
| Copyright Information: | 2016 © The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC). |
| Funders: | Australian Research Council (ARC), ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies |
| Projects and Grants: | ARC FT110100201, ARC CE140100020 |
| Date Deposited: | 25 Aug 2026 02:15 |
| FoR Codes: | 37 EARTH SCIENCES > 3708 Oceanography > 370803 Physical oceanography @ 100% |
| SEO Codes: | 28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280107 Expanding knowledge in the earth sciences @ 100% |
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