Rapid assessments of Cyclone Yasi's impact on nearshore coral reefs and resultant sediment records of the event.

气旋和飓风对浅水珊瑚礁的结构和生态有重要影响。这是通过珊瑚（特别是分支珊瑚物种）的物理破坏发生的，由此产生的碎石是碎屑礁架碳酸盐的主要来源。在生态学上，这些高强度的物理扰动事件也对底栖生物栖息地的组成和多样性产生深远的影响，并推动珊瑚礁沉积物的再活化和分布——将这些物质运送到岸边的泻湖或海滩上，或将离岸沉积物冲到更深的水中。许多未来气候模式预测这类热带风暴的频率和强度都会增加，因此关于浅水珊瑚礁的物理和生态恢复力的数据具有重要的科学和管理意义。各种研究已经审查了这种物理干扰事件对珊瑚礁的影响，在许多情况下，其研究结果仅基于影响后评估。只有在少数情况下，有高质量的影响前后数据，而在大多数情况下，这些数据仅足以考虑生态转变（尽管极其重要）。很少有机会对物理干扰事件进行多代理评估，这些评估可以利用影响前数据，不仅包括珊瑚礁生态，还包括地貌（结构、海拔）、当代沉积学和全新世晚期的珊瑚礁发育历史（保存在岩芯记录中）。能够在气旋轨道附近和更远的一些地点进行这项工作，代表了一个前所未有的机会，特别是在近岸到近海沉积环境的数据可用的情况下。在这里，我们有这样一个机会，它将使我们能够对最近一次特别强烈的气旋引起的变化进行多代理评估（地貌、生态和沉积学）。所讨论的事件，强热带气旋Yasi，是一个5级气旋（1-5级的最高级别），于2011年2月3日在澳大利亚昆士兰海岸的Mission Beach和Tully附近登陆。风暴眼宽约35公里，锋面延伸约650公里。幸存下来的仪器证据显示，中心气压约为929hPa，风速高达285公里/小时，风暴潮高度至少达到5米。因此，“雅西”是有记录以来影响昆士兰州的最强气旋之一。以前有类似强度测量的气旋包括夏洛特公主湾北部350公里处的气旋马希纳（1899年），以及1918年在麦凯和因尼斯菲尔的气旋。具体来说，我们已经对风暴路径及其着陆点附近的大量珊瑚礁的结构和生态进行了详细的研究，能够进行快速的影响后评估，并将这些数据与在同一地点收集的数据（2006-2009年）进行比较。我们将此作为紧急申请提交，因为需要在后勤条件允许的情况下尽快进行此类影响后研究。这在海洋环境中至关重要，以确保尽可能多地保存事件的证据（包括生态和地貌学）。我们计划在2011年8月开始这项研究，从申请开始提前6个月（考虑到审查过程和后续旅行计划的需要，这可能是后勤上可能最快的时间）。时间将是这样的，以便与冬季大潮低潮时期相吻合，此时进入现场要容易得多。根据其他热带地区现有的风暴后恢复轨迹，我们预计这些证据将在我们正在努力的6个月内得到很好的保存。

Cyclones and hurricanes exert a major influence on the structure and ecology of shallow water coral reefs. This occurs through the physical destruction of corals (especially branching coral species), with the resultant rubble being a major source of detrital reef framework carbonate. Ecologically, these high magnitude physical disturbance events also exert a profound influence on benthic habitat composition and diversity, and drive the remobilisation and distribution of reef-derived sediments - transporting such materials either shorewards into lagoons or onto beaches, or flushing sediment offshore into deeper water. Many future climate models predict an increasing frequency and intensity of such tropical storms, and thus data on the physical and ecological resilience of shallow water coral reefs is of significant scientific and management interest.Various studies have examined the impact of such physical disturbance events on coral reefs, in many cases basing their findings only on post-impact assessments. In only a few cases have high quality pre- and post-impact data been available, and in most cases this has only been sufficient to consider the (albeit critically important) ecological transitions. It is extremely rare to have the opportunity to undertake multi-proxy assessments of physical disturbance events that can draw on pre-impact data covering not only the reef ecology, but also geomorphology (structure, elevation), contemporary sedimentology, and the late Holocene history of reef development (as preserved in core records). To be able to do this at a range of sites both immediately proximal to a cyclone track and at more distal sites, represents an unprecedented opportunity, especially where data is available from a range of nearshore to offshore depositional settings.Here we have such an opportunity, and one that will allow us to undertake multi-proxy assessments (geomorphical, ecological and sedimentological) of the changes induced by an especially high magnitude recent cyclone. The event in question, Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi, was a Category 5 cyclone (the highest category on a scale of 1-5) that made landfall on the Queensland coast of Australia, in the vicinity of Mission Beach and Tully, on 3rd Feb 2011. The eye of the storm was ~35 km wide, with a front stretching across ~650 km. Evidence from instrumentation that survived the event shows a central pressure of around 929hPa, with winds gusting up to 285 km/h, and with storm surge heights reaching at least 5 m. Yasi was thus one of the most powerful cyclones to have affected Queensland since records commenced. Previous cyclones of a comparable measured intensity include Cyclone Mahina (1899) in Princess Charlotte Bay ~350 km to the north, and the 1918 cyclones at Mackay and Innisfail.Specifically, we are in a position, having undertaken detailed studies of the structure and ecology of a wide range of reefs in the immediate vicinity of the storm track and its landfall point, to be able to undertake a rapid post-impact assessment, and to compare this data with that collected (between 2006-2009) at the same sites. We are submitting this as an Urgency application because of the need to undertake such post-impact studies as soon as logistically possible. This is of critical importance in marine environments to ensure that as much of the evidence (both ecological and geomorphological) of the event is preserved. We are planning to undertake this study in August 2011, giving a 6 month lead in from this application (this is probably as soon as logistically possible given the need for the review process and subsequent travel planning). The timing will be such, so as to coincide with one of the winter low spring tide periods when site access is far easier. Based on existing post-storm recovery trajectories in other tropical regions we would anticipate such evidence being well preserved within the 6 month lead in time we are working to.