Mass Exchange between Flexible Submerged Canopies and Adjacent Open Water

灵活的水下檐篷和相邻开放水域之间的物质交换

• 批准号: 0751358
• 负责人: Heidi Nepf
• 金额: $ 40.05万
• 依托单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-07-01 至 2013-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0751358&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Mass; Exchange; between; Flexible; Submerged

Seagrass meadows have a significant ecologic and economic impact in coastal regions. The nutrient cycling they provide is valued at 3.8 trillion dollars per year. In addition seagrass beds provide habitat for many economically important marine species and influence the fate of sediment and carbon in the coastal-zone. The important biogeochemical processes within a seagrass meadow, as well as the impact of seagrass on the surrounding environment, are regulated by the exchanges of momentum and mass between the meadow and surrounding open water. Several previous studies have described the mass and momentum transport associated with rigid canopies. However, we have only a limited understanding of transport in flexible canopies. This project will build on existing theories for rigid canopies to develop mass transport models for flexible canopies under both unidirectional flow and wave conditions. Intellectual Merit: The project will develop new models for turbulent exchange in flexible submerged canopies under both unidirectional flow and wave conditions. This work will contribute to our basic understanding of bio-flow interaction. In addition, the work contributes to the broad topic of flow and transport near porous layers that touches disciplines in meteorology (terrestrial canopies), porous media (hyporheic exchange), and biological oceanography (kelp forest, seagrass, coral ecology)Broader Impacts and Potential Benefits to Society: By providing physical models for flux in and around flexible, submerged vegetation, this project will contribute to a better framework for studying and measuring the uptake, settling, and recruitment processes that occur within these canopies. In addition, the flux models will enable a more quantitative consideration of how meadow geometry (length, height, stem density) influences a meadow?s impact on the surrounding ecosystem, which in turn will lead to better predictions of ecosystem response to changes in nutrient load or changes in seagrass distribution. In addition, the project will provide training for one graduate and at least one undergraduate student per year. The project will also form the basis for a new undergraduate laboratory activity, to be incorporated into the Principal Investigator?s current Junior year course. Finally, the investigator will use this work as a platform for continued interaction with the MIT Seagrant Eelgrass Restoration Project.

海草草地在沿海地区具有重大的生态和经济影响。他们提供的营养循环每年价值3.8万亿美元。另外，海草床为许多经济上重要的海洋物种提供栖息地，并影响沿海地区沉积物和碳的命运。海草草地内重要的生物地球化学过程，以及海草对周围环境的影响，受到草地和周围开放水之间的动量和质量的交流来调节。先前的几项研究描述了与刚性檐篷相关的质量和动量运输。但是，我们对柔性檐篷的运输有限的理解有限。该项目将基于现有的刚性檐篷的理论，以在单向流和波浪条件下开发柔性檐篷的大众传输模型。智力优点：该项目将在单向流和波浪条件下开发新的模型，以在柔性淹没檐篷中进行湍流交换。这项工作将有助于我们对生物流相互作用的基本理解。此外，这项工作为多孔层的流动和运输的广泛话题做出了贡献，该层触及气象学（陆地檐篷），多孔媒体（多孔交换），生物海洋学（Kelp森林，海格森林，海格，珊瑚生态，珊瑚生态学）对社会的广泛影响和潜在的效果，以使素质范围更广泛地构成这种范围，并为这种范围提供了更广泛的效果，以使素质范围更广泛地构成这种素材，并为柔韧性提供了更大的效果。这些檐篷中发生的吸收，定居和招聘过程。此外，通量模型将对草地对草地的影响（长度，高度，茎密度）如何影响草地对周围生态系统的影响进行更定量的考虑，这反过来又可以更好地预测生态系统对营养负载变化或海草分布变化的反应。此外，该项目每年将为一名研究生和至少一名本科生提供培训。该项目还将构成新的本科实验室活动的基础，并将其纳入主要研究人员的当前大三年级课程中。最后，调查员将使用这项工作作为与麻省理工学院海格兰鳗草修复项目持续互动的平台。