Research projects

Current projects

Information to follow.

Earlier projects

• Applying social science to making ecosystem service assessments accessible for greater policy impact
• A hierarchical approach to the examination of the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem service flows across coastal margins (CBESS)
• A large-scale flume experiment to determine wave dissipation and transformation over coastal vegetation under extreme hydrodynamic loading (a HYDRALAB IV project)
• Information on other projects to follow shortly.

Temperate Coasts

Projects include:

• The relationships between vegetation characteristics and the sea defence value of saltmarsh ecosystems
• The sea-defence function of micro-tidal temperate coastal wetlands
• Flooding and Environmental Challenges for Venice and its Lagoon: State of Knowledge 2003
• The Big Flood: North Sea Storm Surges
• Monitoring of foreshore recharge for restoration of intertidal profiles and flood defence management: Shotley Point mud placement
• Wave Attenuation over Salt Marsh Surfaces
• Wave/Tide Monitoring
• Shoreline Management Plans
• Marsh surface sedimentation and elevation changes
• Remote sensing applications in the coastal zone
• Coastal Settlements at Risk

Tropical Coasts

The 1990s have been characterised by a growing interest in the assessment of coral reef condition and the threats, both natural and anthropogenic, that reefs face now and in the near-future. One process of particular concern has been the phenomenon of 'coral bleaching'. This term is used to describe the whitening of corals which results from the degeneration and/or loss of symbiotic algae, the zooxanthellae, and/or the loss of cells containing zooxanthellae, from coral tissues. Elevated sea surface temperatures and high solar irradiance at UV wavelengths, by overcoming coral photo-protective mechanisms, play a key role in driving coral bleaching processes. Within the last decade, the mapping of remotely-sensed SST 'hotspots' has confirmed the importance of large-scale, El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) -related heating, cooling and migrations of ocean water masses as a prime determinant of widespread, mass coral bleaching episodes.

Projects include:

• Cambridge Coastal Research Unit and Khaled Bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation to assess tsunami impact on Western Indian Ocean coral reefs ...
• Reconstructing sea-level change from coral micro-atolls, Tongareva (Penhryn) Atoll, Northern Cook Islands
• Southern Seychelles Atoll Research Programme
• Shoals of Capricorn Marine Programme