Coral Reefs

As part of the Stakeholder Engagement for Natural Hazards Investigations in the Caribbean (SENHIC) project, the USGS team aims to connect with scientists who are conducting natural hazards research in the Caribbean, build relationships with natural hazards researchers based in the Caribbean and those specializing in the region, and develop a framework for collaborating with international partners.

USGS staff are connecting with natural hazards researchers based in the Caribbean and those specializing in the region to find out which natural hazards are of primary concern, learn about their mitigation efforts, and explore the potential for research collaboration.

Explore the fascinating undersea world of coral reefs. Learn how we map, monitor, and model coral reefs so we can better understand, protect, and preserve our Nation's reefs.

As part of the USGS Coral Reef Project, the overall objective of this research effort is to better understand how circulation and sediment processes impact coral reefs and their adjacent coastlines.

We are combining ocean, engineering, ecologic, social, and economic modeling to provide a high-resolution, rigorous, spatially-explicit valuation of the coastal flood protection benefits provided by coral reefs and the cost effectiveness of reef restoration for enhancing those benefits.

We are mapping and assessing all of the important geologic and oceanographic factors to identify those coral reefs most at risk and those reefs that are potentially the most resilient and the most likely to recover from natural and human-driven impacts.

Providing basic understanding and specific information on storm-wave inundation of atoll islands that house Department of Defense installations, and assessing the resulting impact of sea-level rise and storm-wave inundation on infrastructure and freshwater availability under a variety of sea-level rise and climatic scenarios.

As part of the USGS Coral Reef Project, we are conducting geophysical and geochemical research to address questions about coastal groundwater-to-reef flow and coral reef health, with the goal of informing management decisions related to planning and implementing activities in priority watershed-coral reef systems.

To study wave dynamics along an active coastline, video cameras were installed on the west coast of Puerto Rico at Tres Palmas in Rincón.

Coastal flooding and erosion from extreme weather events affect thousands of vulnerable coastal communities; the impacts of coastal flooding are predicted to worsen during this century because of population growth and climate change. Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 were particularly devasting to humans and natural communities. The coral reefs off the State of Florida and the Commonwealth of...

As part of the USGS Coral Reef Project, we are developing new and unique oceanographic and environmental archives from coral skeleton records to better understand the compounding effects of land-use and environmental change on coral reef health.

To better understand how waves move across coral reefs and cause flooding on tropical shorelines, USGS scientists have installed video cameras and oceanographic instruments off San Juan and Rincón, Puerto Rico. Their work is part of a study funded by USGS after Hurricanes Irma and María. The offshore instruments measure wave heights and speeds; the onshore video cameras show where waves break on...