PubTalk 9/2015 — Coral Reefs, Climate Change, and Atoll Sustainability

Will Micronesians become the U.S.'s first climate change refugees?

by Curt Storlazzi, USGS Research Geologist and Oceanographer

• Sea level is rising, threatening low-lying atoll islands throughout the western Pacific Ocean
• Climate change is degrading the coral reefs that atoll islands have developed upon, decreasing the reefs' ability to reduce wave energy and thus wave-driven island flooding
• Wave-driven island overwash events threaten the limited freshwater and agricultural resources on these low-lying islands
• We are trying to assess the impact of climate change and sea-level rise on the infrastructure, freshwater availability, and natural and historic resources of atoll islands under a variety of scenarios to determine "tipping points" - when islands are no longer habitable