Persistence of atoll islands under recent and projected sea-level rise

Abstract

A! recent! study! comparing! satellite! images! with! older! aerial! pictures! of! 27! centralY Pacific!Atoll!islands!found!only!14%!of!the!studied!islands!decreased!in!net!land!area,! whereas! 43% increased! in! net! area.! The! study! was! published! in! the! peerYreviewed! journal! Global! and! Planetary! Change! by! authors! Webb! (South! Pacific! Applied! Geoscience! Commission,! SOPAC,! Fiji)! and! Kench! (University! of! Auckland,! New! Zealand).! These! observations! showed! that! the! gross! change! in! island! area! was! generally! much! larger! than! changes! in! net! area.! This! means! most! islands! were! observed! to! be! ‘dynamic’:! shorelines! have! shifted,! with! erosion! on! one! side! mostly! compensated! or! overcompensated! by! accretion! on! another! side,! in! most! cases! providing!growth,!of!net!land!area.