Reversing circulation structure in arid, tropical estuaries

该奖项支持佛罗里达大学和累西腓伯南布哥联邦大学以及巴西福塔莱萨塞拉联邦大学之间的一项新的国际合作。这次合作的重点将是研究热带干旱地区低流入河口的水动力学。这种类型的河口可能会因为过量蒸发或降水而将环流结构从湿季转变为旱季。在干季和湿季明显的河口，水动力状况季节性变化的一个主要结果是，在枯季期间，河口可能丧失冲刷效率。这项合作要达到的具体目标包括：(A)与巴西科学家和学生进行初步数据收集，以调查丰水期和枯水期强季节性干旱河口的水动力学；(B)在伯南布哥联邦大学举办河口水动力学短期课程。在以后的阶段，巴西科学家和学生将访问佛罗里达州，资金来自巴西来源。巴西东道主施泰蒂尼博士在识别季节性逆转的系统以及研究它们所需的后勤方面积累了专业知识。美国首席调查员拥有收集和分析必要数据的专业知识，以将结果放在理论和新发现的背景下。这项活动将促进国际合作，并将使研究生接触到其他科学环境和研究领域。未来的研究将促进我们对热带干旱地区低流入河口的物理学的理解，这是一个在世界各地基本上仍未探索的话题。随着淡水资源越来越多地用于人类消费和海平面上升，很明显，这些系统将最容易受到盐入侵和高盐度条件加剧导致的功能急剧变化的影响。该项目将通过在巴西教授的课程，对几名拉丁美洲学生(20至30人)进行有关河口水动力学专题的培训。一名美国研究生将参加考察之旅，收集数据，分析数据，并就将在雨季和旱季收集的数据撰写一份描述性论文。

This award supports a new international collaboration between the University of Florida and the Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife, and the Federal University of Ceará, in Fortaleza, Brazil. The collaboration will be focused on studying the hydrodynamics of low-inflow estuaries in tropical, arid regions. This type of estuaries may change the circulation structure from the wet to the dry season because of excess evaporation or precipitation. A main outcome of the seasonal change of the hydrodynamic regime in estuaries with marked dry and wet seasons is the likely loss of flushing efficiency by the estuary during the dry season. Specific objectives to be addressed with this collaboration consist of (a) initial data collection with Brazilian scientists and students to investigate the hydrodynamics of strongly seasonal arid estuaries during wet and dry seasons; and (b) delivery of a short course on estuarine hydrodynamics at the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco. At a later stage a visit of Brazilian scientists and students to Florida is envisaged, with funding from Brazilian sources. The Brazilian host, Dr. Schettini, has developed expertise in identifying systems with seasonal reversals and the logistics necessary to study them. The US Principal Investigator has the expertise to collect and analyze necessary data to place the results in the context of theoretical and new findings.This activity will foster international collaborations and will expose graduate students to other scientific settings and study areas. Future research will advance our understanding of the physics of low inflow estuaries in tropical arid regions, a topic that has remained essentially unexplored throughout the world. With increasing use of freshwater resources for human consumption and sea level rise, it is evident that these systems will be most vulnerable to a drastic change of function caused by enhanced salt intrusion and hypersalinity conditions. This project will train several Latin-American students (between 20 and 30 individuals) in the topic of Estuarine Hydrodynamics through a course to be taught in Brazil. A US graduate student will participate in the prospection trips, collect data, analyze data and write a descriptive paper on the data that will be collected in the wet and dry seasons.