Coral Reefs Soften Ocean’s Fury for Millions of Coastal Dwellers — blog.nature.org

Coral reefs, such as the one shown here off Tokoriki Island, help sap energy from incoming waves and protect coasts from erosion and storm damage. Photo credit: Malcolm Peacey/Flickr through a Creative Commons license. Call up in your mind the classic travel ad picture of a tropical island: turquoise waves lapping gently at a white sand beach, palm fronds waving in a mild breeze. Now direct your view off shore. See that line of white foam, just shy of the horizon? That’s the crest of a coral reef that extracts over 95% of the energy from incoming waves. Without it, the waves wouldn’t lap so gently.

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