Comparing the ecological relevance of four wave exposure models

• We compare 4 wave exposure models with different complexity in a coastal area.
• Models are evaluated against an ecologically relevant biological exposure index.
• All methods were related to the index, but differed in their performance.
• Diffraction, wind frequency and bathymetric effects increased performance.
• Numerical hydrodynamic simulations show great promise also in complex coastal areas.

Wave exposure is one of the main structuring forces in the marine environment. Methods that enable large scale quantification of environmental variables have become increasingly important for predicting marine communities in the context of spatial planning and coastal zone management. Existing methods range from cartographic solutions to numerical hydrodynamic simulations, and differ in the scale and spatial coverage of their outputs. Using a biological exposure index we compared the performance of four wave exposure models ranging from simple to more advanced techniques. All models were found to be related to the biological exposure index and their performance, measured as bootstrapped R2 distributions, overlapped. Qualitatively, there were differences in the spatial patterns indicating higher complexity with more advanced techniques. In order to create complex spatial patterns wave exposure models should include diffraction, especially in coastal areas rich in islands. The inclusion of wind strength and frequency, in addition to wind direction and bathymetry, further tended to increase the amount of explained variation. The large potential of high-resolution numerical models to explain the observed patterns of species distribution in complex coastal areas provide exciting opportunities for future research. Easy access to relevant wave exposure models will aid large scale habitat classification systems and the continuously growing field of marine species distribution modelling, ultimately serving marine spatial management and planning.