Hydrodynamics within the reef : a closer look at flow-coral interactions
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Coral reefs are valuable marine ecosystems. Moreover, their importance extends beyond the oceans, as they protect coastlines and are a source of income for coastal communities and fisheries. The decline of reefs over the past decades has led to the need for bettering our understanding of the processes that take place on the reef, as we strive to conserve and restore them. Small-scale hydrodynamics are vital to survival within the reef canopy and enhance mixing to ensure the high productivity of this benthic community. By supplying nutrients, removing waste material and applying forces to coral colonies, influencing their distribution and growth, flows within the reef canopy determine its shape. However, there is still much to be learned about the role of small-scale hydrodynamics in sustaining coral health and facilitating the biological processes needed for survival. The interactions between flow on the reef and individual coral colonies forms a feedback loop where flow affects coral morphology and as the corals adapt and grow, they in turn affect the flow. This dissertation focuses on deepen our understanding of how this feed-back loop works through a series of laboratory experiments. The work here addresses inaccuracies in using simplified geometries, cylinders and spheres, to model the forces on coral colonies as well as how colony position in the reef affects the forces it experiences. Additional work also examines the downstream evolution of flow after it has passed a colony and its role within the reef canopy as well as how nighttime polyp tentacle extension affects the floe in the boundary layer. The implications of these results on the colony dislodgment, biological processes and mixing within the reef are also presented.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2014 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Samuel, Lianna C |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. |
| Primary advisor | Monismith, Stephen Gene |
| Thesis advisor | Monismith, Stephen Gene |
| Thesis advisor | Dunbar, Robert B, 1954- |
| Thesis advisor | Koseff, Jeffrey Russell |
| Advisor | Dunbar, Robert B, 1954- |
| Advisor | Koseff, Jeffrey Russell |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Lianna C. Samuel. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2014. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2014 by Lianna Crystal Samuel
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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