@article{fdi:010090017,
  title = {{N}egative sea level anomalies with extreme low tides in the {S}outh-{W}est {I}ndian {O}cean shape {R}eunion {I}sland's fringing coral reef flats},
  author = {{H}oarau, {L}. and {M}ouquet, {P}ascal and {R}opert, {M}. and {C}uvillier, {A}. and {M}ass, {L}. and {B}onhommeau, {S}. and {B}igot, {L}. and {C}auvin, {B}. and {P}othin, {K}. and {B}ajjouk, {T}.},
  editor = {},
  language = {{ENG}},
  abstract = {{A}mong induced mass-mortality events on coral reef, extreme low tides may ultimately lead to considerable reef community deaths on intertidal reef flats due to unusually long and significant aerial exposure. {H}ere, we report an extensive coral mortality event induced by a negative sea level anomaly (n{SLA}) that occurred across {R}eunion {I}sland during the austral winter season between {J}une and {O}ctober 2015 preceding the 2015-2016 {E}l {N}iño {S}outhern {O}scillation ({ENSO}) event. {T}he n{SLA} was strong and long in duration with a rapid drop of 35 cm in the mean sea level over a one-month period. {S}urveys conducted over seven reef flat sites before and after the n{SLA} revealed that mean coral cover drastically decreased from 54.5 ± 12.7% in early 2015, to 27.4 ± 6.9% in {N}ovember 2015, which is an equivalent cover loss of 50% following the 2015 n{SLA} event. {T}he shallowest sites showed a greater decrease in coral cover while the deepest parts of the reef flat remained unaffected. {W}e found a significant correlation between the bathymetry and the relative coral cover variation. {U}sing this relationship between depth and coral cover changes, high-resolution hyperspectral imagery and {L}idar bathymetric airborne data, we mapped the impacts of this event at the scale of the whole reef. {O}verall the modeled loss reached 13.0 ha, which represents a decrease of 45.5% of all live coral cover in this area during the 2015 n{SLA} event. {T}he impact of a n{SLA} on emersion times is much greater than the regular variation in tide amplitude between neap and spring tides, reaching new bathymetric ranges that are usually stable in terms of water submersion. {T}emporal variation of coral cover on {R}eunion {I}sland reef flat revealed regular decreases to be compared with mean low-water-level events among other sea and climatic related disturbances and stressors.},
  keywords = {{S}ea level anomalies ; {L}ow tides ; {A}erial exposure ; {C}oral mortality ; {R}eunion {I}sland ; {S}outh -{W}est {I}ndian {O}cean ; {REUNION} ; {OCEAN} {INDIEN}},
  booktitle = {},
  journal = {{E}cological {I}ndicators},
  volume = {154},
  numero = {},
  pages = {110508 [16 ]},
  ISSN = {1470-160{X}},
  year = {2023},
  DOI = {10.1016/j.ecolind.2023.110508},
  URL = {https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010090017},
}