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至24个月的研究。该计划的奖项提供了联合研究的机会，并利用国外独特或互补的设施、专业知识和实验条件。该奖项将支持Ryan Lowe博士与西澳大利亚大学的Greg Ivey博士和Chari Pattiaratchi博士以及澳大利亚珀斯澳大利亚联邦科学和工业研究组织(CSIRO)的Graham Symonds博士合作的为期24个月的研究奖学金。该项目的目标是提高我们对边缘珊瑚礁循环的了解和预测能力。珊瑚礁的生态与水的运动密切相关，水运动运输和分散营养物质和幼虫等关键生物物质。因此，为了成功地管理这些系统，需要使用水动力模型来预测珊瑚礁环流。珊瑚礁上的水流可以由许多强迫机制驱动，包括波浪、潮汐、风和浮力效应。通过假定珊瑚礁几何形状的简化形式，已经开发了几个一维分析模型来预测这些流。在一些珊瑚礁上，这些一维模型已被证明可以准确地描述主导洋流的特征。然而，将这些1D模型应用于边缘珊瑚礁(珊瑚礁位于靠近海岸的地方)是有问题的，因为众所周知，这些珊瑚礁的循环是珊瑚礁几何形状的特殊3D性质的强烈函数。了解边缘珊瑚礁上的流动是必要的，因为它们代表了世界许多地区发现的主要珊瑚礁类别，包括那些毗邻美国的地区(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如何驱动礁体边缘的水流，必须使用三维数值模型，但在以往的研究中，它们的应用大多是缺乏的。因此，本项目的目的是：1)应用三维水动力模型作为工具，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；2)进行密集的现场实验，以测量珊瑚礁的主导环流，从而为验证该模型提供数据。这项研究将集中在西澳大利亚州的宁格罗礁，就其大小和生物多样性而言，这是澳大利亚最重要的边缘珊瑚礁之一。

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.