Online-coupling of widely-ranged timescales to model coral reef development

Online-coupling of widely-ranged timescales to model coral reef development

Hendrickx, G.G. (TU Delft Coastal Engineering; Deltares)
Herman, P.M.J. (TU Delft Environmental Fluid Mechanics; Deltares)
Dijkstra, Jasper T. (Deltares)
Storlazzi, Curt D. (Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center)
Toth, Lauren T. (North Central Climate Science Centre)

2021

The increasing pressure on Earth's ecosystems due to climate change is becoming more and more evident and the impacts of climate change are especially visible on coral reefs. Understanding how climate change interacts with the physical environment of reefs to impact coral growth and reef development is critically important to predicting the persistence of reefs into the future. In this study, a biophysical model was developed including four environmental factors in a feedback loop with the coral's biology: (1) light; (2) hydrodynamics; (3) temperature; and (4) pH. The submodels are online coupled, i.e. regularly exchanging information and feedbacks while the model runs. This ensures computational efficiency despite the widely-ranged timescales. The composed biophysical model provides a significant step forward in understanding the processes that modulate the evolution of coral reefs, as it is the first construction of a model in which the hydrodynamics are included in the feedback loop.

Biophysical model
Coral reefs
Hydrodynamics
Light
pH
Temperature
Timescales

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f30e8aab-87a6-4558-90f7-1a14f4dd2465

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2021.105103

1364-8152

Environmental Modelling & Software, 143, 1-12

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2021 G.G. Hendrickx, P.M.J. Herman, Jasper T. Dijkstra, Curt D. Storlazzi, Lauren T. Toth