Rewilding could help vulnerable islands keep pace with rising seas
Seabirds, native plants, and healthy reefs can help atolls build as seas rise.
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The new study measures the “reef accretion potential” for the islands, showing it to be twice as high on lagoonal and ocean-facing reefs around rat-free islands with abundant seabirds as around rat-infested islands. That would be “sufficient to closely keep up with predicted sea-level rises to the end of the century under a 2° Celsius warming scenario,” said co-author Casey Benkwitt , a California-based restoration scientist with The Nature Conservancy.
Reef growth rates without seabird populations are less likely to keep pace with projected sea-level rise, she added.
