Cargando…
Distant Storms as Drivers of Environmental Change at Pacific Atolls
The central Pacific Ocean with its many low lying islands and atolls is under threat from sea level rise and increased storm activity. Here, we illustrate how increasing frequency and severity of large scale storm events associated with global climate change may be particularly profound at the local...
Autores principales: | , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2014
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3909279/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24498232 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0087971 |
_version_ | 1782301819240710144 |
---|---|
author | Gardner, Jonathan P. A. Garton, David W. Collen, John D. Zwartz, Daniel |
author_facet | Gardner, Jonathan P. A. Garton, David W. Collen, John D. Zwartz, Daniel |
author_sort | Gardner, Jonathan P. A. |
collection | PubMed |
description | The central Pacific Ocean with its many low lying islands and atolls is under threat from sea level rise and increased storm activity. Here, we illustrate how increasing frequency and severity of large scale storm events associated with global climate change may be particularly profound at the local scale for human populations that rely on lagoon systems for provision of a variety of goods and services. In August 2011 a storm originating in the Southern Ocean caused a large amplitude ocean swell to move northward through the Pacific Ocean. Its arrival at Palmyra Atoll coincided with transient elevated sea surface height and triggered turnover of the lagoon water column. This storm-induced change to the lagoon reflects long distance connectivity with propagated wave energy from the Southern Ocean and illustrates the increasing threats generated by climate change that are faced by human populations on most low-lying Pacific islands and atolls. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3909279 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-39092792014-02-04 Distant Storms as Drivers of Environmental Change at Pacific Atolls Gardner, Jonathan P. A. Garton, David W. Collen, John D. Zwartz, Daniel PLoS One Research Article The central Pacific Ocean with its many low lying islands and atolls is under threat from sea level rise and increased storm activity. Here, we illustrate how increasing frequency and severity of large scale storm events associated with global climate change may be particularly profound at the local scale for human populations that rely on lagoon systems for provision of a variety of goods and services. In August 2011 a storm originating in the Southern Ocean caused a large amplitude ocean swell to move northward through the Pacific Ocean. Its arrival at Palmyra Atoll coincided with transient elevated sea surface height and triggered turnover of the lagoon water column. This storm-induced change to the lagoon reflects long distance connectivity with propagated wave energy from the Southern Ocean and illustrates the increasing threats generated by climate change that are faced by human populations on most low-lying Pacific islands and atolls. Public Library of Science 2014-01-31 /pmc/articles/PMC3909279/ /pubmed/24498232 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0087971 Text en © 2014 Gardner et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Gardner, Jonathan P. A. Garton, David W. Collen, John D. Zwartz, Daniel Distant Storms as Drivers of Environmental Change at Pacific Atolls |
title | Distant Storms as Drivers of Environmental Change at Pacific Atolls |
title_full | Distant Storms as Drivers of Environmental Change at Pacific Atolls |
title_fullStr | Distant Storms as Drivers of Environmental Change at Pacific Atolls |
title_full_unstemmed | Distant Storms as Drivers of Environmental Change at Pacific Atolls |
title_short | Distant Storms as Drivers of Environmental Change at Pacific Atolls |
title_sort | distant storms as drivers of environmental change at pacific atolls |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3909279/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24498232 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0087971 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT gardnerjonathanpa distantstormsasdriversofenvironmentalchangeatpacificatolls AT gartondavidw distantstormsasdriversofenvironmentalchangeatpacificatolls AT collenjohnd distantstormsasdriversofenvironmentalchangeatpacificatolls AT zwartzdaniel distantstormsasdriversofenvironmentalchangeatpacificatolls |