International Research Fellowship Program: Hydrodynamics of Fringing Coral Reef Systems

国际研究奖学金计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行9到24个月的研究。 该计划的奖项提供了联合研究的机会，并使用独特或互补的设施，专业知识和国外的实验条件。该奖项将支持由博士瑞安Lowe为期24个月的研究奖学金，与格雷格艾维博士和博士Chari Pattiaratchi在西澳大学，和博士格雷厄姆西蒙兹在澳大利亚联邦科学和工业研究组织（CSIRO），在澳大利亚的珀斯。这个项目的目标是提高我们的理解和能力，预测边缘珊瑚礁的环流。 珊瑚礁的生态与水流密切相关，水流输送和分散营养物和幼虫等关键生物物质。 因此，需要使用水动力模型来预测珊瑚礁环流，以成功地管理这些系统。 珊瑚礁上的海流可以由许多强迫机制驱动，包括波浪、潮汐、风和浮力效应。 已经开发了几个一维分析模型来预测这些电流，假设简化形式的珊瑚礁的几何形状。 在一些珊瑚礁上，这些一维模型已被证明可以准确地描述盛行海流的特征。 然而，这些1D模型的应用程序的边缘珊瑚礁（珊瑚礁位于靠近海岸）是有问题的，因为这些珊瑚礁的流通是已知的珊瑚礁几何形状的特定的3D性质的强功能。 了解边缘珊瑚礁上的水流是必要的，因为它们代表了世界许多地区发现的主要珊瑚礁类别，包括与美国相邻的珊瑚礁（例如，夏威夷群岛、佛罗里达和加勒比海）。 为了更好地了解和预测这些不同的力量如何驱动流的边缘礁，三维数值模型必须采用，但他们的应用大多缺乏在以前的研究。 因此，该项目的目标是：1）应用三维流体动力学模型作为工具，以促进我们对波浪，潮汐，风和浮力如何驱动边缘珊瑚礁环流的理解，以及2）进行密集的现场实验，以测量珊瑚礁的主导环流，从而提供数据来验证模型。 该研究将集中在西澳大利亚的宁格鲁礁，这是澳大利亚最重要的边缘珊瑚礁之一，无论是在规模还是生物多样性方面。

0601787LoweThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twenty-four-month research fellowship by Dr. Ryan Lowe to work with Dr. Greg Ivey and Dr. Chari Pattiaratchi at the University of Western Australia, and Dr. Graham Symonds at the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), in Perth, Australia.The goal of this project is to improve our understanding and ability to predict circulation on fringing coral reefs. The ecology of coral reefs is closely linked with water motion, which transports and disperses key biological material such as nutrients and larvae. Accordingly, the use of hydrodynamic models to predict reef circulation is needed to successfully manage these systems. Currents on reefs can be driven by a number of forcing mechanisms including waves, tides, wind, and buoyancy effects. Several 1D analytical models have been developed to predict these currents, by assuming simplified forms for the reef geometries. On some reefs these 1D models have been shown to accurately characterize the prevailing currents. However, the application of these 1D models to fringing reefs (those where the reef lies close to the shore) is problematic, because the circulation of these reefs is known to be a strong function of the particular 3D nature of the reef geometry. Understanding flow on fringing reefs is imperative because they represent the dominant class of reefs found in many regions of the world, including those adjacent to the US (e.g., the Hawaiian Islands, Florida, and the Caribbean). In order to best understand and predict how these various forces drive flow on fringing reefs, 3D numerical models must be employed, but their application has been mostly lacking in previous studies. As such, this project aims: 1) to apply a 3D hydrodynamic model as a tool to advance our understanding of how wave, tidal, wind and buoyancy forcing drives circulation on a fringing coral reef, and 2) to conduct an intensive field experiment to measure the dominant circulation of the reef, thus providing data to validate the model. The study will focus on Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia, one of Australia's most significant fringing reefs in terms of both its size and biodiversity.