ON-REEF CYCLONIC WAVE CLIMATE THROUGHOUT THE GREAT BARRIER REEF

Abstract

The Great Barrier Reef is an iconic ecosystem that is collapsing under low lagoon water quality from terrestrial runoff and resulting overly productive crown-of-thorns starfish, coral bleaching from thermal stress and physical destruction from tropical cyclones, to name the top four stresses. This collapsing is mostly seen in coral coverage declining over time from water quality and starfish stresses combined with episodic large scale drops from thermal stress and tropical cyclones. Action on improved land use would decrease the impact from water quality and starfish and action on climate change would reduce thermal stresses and hence, the frequency of bleaching events. Tropical cyclone impacts, while they may be getting more intense or larger under climate change, their destructive power is significant either way (i.e., before and after climate changes). These stresses have led to the administrative body, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, to shift from passive management to active interventions, which are generally extremely costly compared to the income generated by the Great Barrier Reef. Consequently, to ensure the limited resources are deployed to obtained maximum benefit, interventions are being tested across all stresses including cyclonic stresses. This requires fine scale determination of cyclonic wave climates across the entire Great Barrier Reef.