Kauaʻi record · KCA-EP-0161
High-surf disturbance
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About High-surf disturbance
Physical disturbance of reefs, beaches, rocky shores and coastal vegetation by large waves.
Names and classification
- Other names
- high-surf disturbance
- Family
- Disturbance, Recovery & Regime Dynamics
- Record type
- ecological_process
Habitat and ecology
- Ecological role
- Supports Atlas reasoning about ecosystem function, dependencies, threats, conservation leverage points and cross-module consequences.
Process and seasonal context
- Definition
- Physical disturbance of reefs, beaches, rocky shores and coastal vegetation by large waves.
- Drivers
- storms; drought; fire; disease; invasives; climate; cumulative pressure
- Inputs
- disturbance energy/pressure
- Outputs
- mortality; state change; recovery; altered process rates
- Spatial scales
- organism → island
- Temporal scales
- minutes → decades
- Validity and limits
- Context-specific; do not extrapolate across habitat, season, elevation, salinity or disturbance state without evidence.
Sources and further reading
- Effects of drought and cloud-water interception on groundwater recharge and wildfire hazard
- Reefs for the future: resilience of coral reefs in the main Hawaiian Islands
- Hanalei NWR Wetlands Management and Waterbird Conservation Plan
- Wildfire presentation and invasive grasses
- Sedimentation processes in a coral reef embayment: Hanalei Bay, Kauaʻi