The potential of coastal ecosystems to mitigate the impact of sea-level rise in shallow tropical bays

Shallow tropical bays in the Caribbean, like Orient Bay and Galion Bay in Saint Martin, are often sheltered by coral reefs. In the relatively calm environment behind the reefs, seagrass meadows grow. Together, these ecosystems provide valuable ecosystem services like coastal protection, biodiversity hotspots, nursery grounds for animals and...

Water motion and vegetation control the pH dynamics in seagrass-dominated bays

Global oceanic pH is lowering, which is causing great concern for the natural functioning of marine ecosystems. Current pH predictions are based on open ocean models; however, coastal zones are dynamic systems with seawater pH fluctuating temporally and spatially. To understand how coastal ecosystems will respond in the future, we first need...

Maintaining Tropical Beaches with Seagrass and Algae: A Promising Alternative to Engineering Solutions

Tropical beaches provide coastal flood protection, income from tourism, and habitat for flagship species. They urgently need protection from erosion, which is being exacerbated by changing climate and coastal development. Traditional coastal engineering solutions are expensive, provide unstable temporary solutions, and often disrupt natural...

Mechanisms of the 40–70 Day Variability in the Yucatan Channel Volume Transport

The Yucatan Channel connects the Caribbean Sea with the Gulf of Mexico and is the main outflow region of the Caribbean Sea. Moorings in the Yucatan Channel show high-frequent variability in kinetic energy (50–100 days) and transport (20–40 days), but the physical mechanisms controlling this variability are poorly understood. In this study, we...

Shingle 2.0: Generalising self-consistent and automated domain discretisation for multi-scale geophysical models

The approaches taken to describe and develop spatial discretisations of the domains required for geophysical simulation models are commonly ad hoc, model- or application-specific, and under-documented. This is particularly acute for simulation models that are flexible in their use of multi-scale, anisotropic, fully unstructured meshes where a...

A multiscale analysis of the stability of Caribbean coastal ecosystems through the biogeomorphic modelling of its complex bays and inlets

The Dutch Caribbean consists of two island groups, the Leeward Antilles off the Venezuelan coast separated from the Windward Islands east of Puerto Rico over distances of the scale of the Caribbean Sea itself. Climate change in the Caribbean Sea is predicted to lead to rising sea levels, warming waters and changing eddy fields. Warming waters...

Kralendijk Declaration, recommendations from Coastal Dynamics and Ecosystem Change: Caribbean, Quo Vadis?: Bonaire, October 18-21, 2016

The Kralendijk Declaration is the outcome of the conference on "Coastal Dynamics and Ecosystem Change: Caribbean, Quo Vadis?" that was held on Bonaire, October 18-21 2016.