But over the past decade, scientists have noticed a surprising phenomenon: some islands are getting bigger.
A new study released last week examined the evolution of Jah Island, part of the Marshall Islands, a sparsely populated atoll, a Pacific nation made up of a remote chain of coral atlases and volcanic islands between the Philippines and Hawaii.
Researchers have found that sedimentation from existing coral reefs has increased the island’s land area by 13% since 1943. Healthy coral reefs naturally produce silt – in fact, atolls become just that.
“You can still see the island growing at a time when most people and most model dales suggest that they should be erased,” said Murray Ford, co-author of an expert study of Pacific Reef Island systems at Clandestine University.
Ford and Paul L. Kench of Simon Fraser University in Canada compared the ground forces of the two sides in 1943 and 2015 in aerial photographs. They also radiocarbon-date Sediment was deposited on the island to find coral remains alive, and it was discovered that sediments had accumulated on parts of the island after 1950. Suggests that island growth is relatively new.
The new study is significant because it shows that islands can continue to rise even when sea levels are rising.
“We have found that the islands are resilient to rising sea conditions and the supply of silt to some atlases is increasing at sea level,” Ford said. “What we don’t know is how it will work in the coming decades.”
What’s going on?
“For Atoll nations, climate change is not a distant threat to the future, but tropical storms and rising seas are an immediate crisis affecting human life, livelihoods and infrastructure,” Nakao said.
“He started a little goldsmith in terms of study,” Ford said. “The signal was kind of consistent – there is no widespread chronic erosion of the Atoll Islands in the Pacific.”
Ford says his study not only shows the island growing in size, but has established definitively why this is happening naturally over time.
“This is the first time we’ve seen the shape of the islands, and we can say that the materials that make up the island are modern … so it must have come from the rocks around the island,” Ford said. “It’s entirely rocks and the skeletons of living things on it.”
What does this mean for the islands?
The fact that some islands “don’t sink” doesn’t mean that climate change isn’t an issue – it’s still a matter of concern.
And scientists aren’t sure if atolls will continue to generate sediment at sea rate to stay above sea level, but University of Hawaii researchers speculate that at tolls will have a different effect depending on their elevated altitude.
Atolls are formed from coral reef silt, but if the reef ecology suffers, the rocks will not be able to continue to produce the same level of silt in the future.
“What happens to reef ecology in the future is a big driver of what happens to island ecology in the future,” Ford said. “If you close the engine room to generate silt, then you’ll likely see that impact island.”
Ford said scientists have not yet understood the scales of time – for example, if a rock dies today, it is not clear if it will affect the level of silt it creates, it will take a year or a decade or more.
But for those who live on These islands, the fact that the mass of the land is increasing they will not be able to overcome the fear of losing their home due to climate change.
According to Ford, most of the people who live on atoll live on parts of the islands that have been improved or developed by people. Ford said man-made structures are unlikely to experience the natural construction of silt, partly because of their desire to build and preserve its inhabitants.
“They are not tolerating sand washing on the island’s surface and disrupting their activities.”
But residents can learn from the natural process, he added.
“In some ways, nature is a kind of model that provides a model for how to adapt to the emergence of the sea surface and that is to make your islands more build taller and build your islands by acquiring silt.” “That’s good news from that perspective, but it makes sure that heck … doesn’t help people on populated islands.”
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