Quantifying the fragility of the coral reefs to hurricane impacts: A case study of the Florida Keys and Puerto Rico

Ian Madden, Arnav Mariwala, Mathilde Lindhart, Siddharth Narayan, Katie Arkema, Mason Beck, Jack Baker, Jenny Suckale

Ecosystems like coral reefs mitigate rising coastal flood risks, but investments into their conservation remain low relative to the investments into engineered risk-mitigation structures. One reason is that quantifying the risk-reduction benefits of coral reefs requires a fragility estimate to severe stresses. Coral reefs of the Florida Keys and Puerto Rico are often exposed to hurricanes and limit hurricane impacts on coasts. In the Keys reefs, there is a noisy compendium of surveys reflecting coral health in the Coral Reef Evaluation and Monitoring Project (CREMP) and Disturbance Response Monitoring (DRM).

A diversity of species contribute to the healthy coral ecosystem, such as surprisingly resilient octocorals, and reef-building stony corals and fire corals. This project focus on the reef-builders because they directly contribute to the rigid structure, and DRM focuses on these corals.