Abstract
Ecohydrodynamics investigates the hydrodynamic constraints on ecosystems across different temporal and spatial scales. Ecohydrodynamics play a pivotal role in the structure and functioning of marine ecosystems, however the lack of integrated complex flow models for deep-water ecosystems beyond the coastal zone prevents further synthesis in these settings. We present a hydrodynamic model for one of Earth's most biologically diverse deep-water ecosystems, cold-water coral reefs. The Mingulay Reef Complex (western Scotland) is an inshore seascape of cold-water coral reefs formed by the scleractinian coral Lophelia pertusa. We applied single-image edge detection and composite front maps using satellite remote sensing, to detect oceanographic fronts and peaks of chlorophyll a values that likely affect food supply to corals and other suspension-feeding fauna. We also present a high resolution 3D ocean model to incorporate salient aspects of the regional and local oceanography. Model validation using in situ current speed, direction and sea elevation data confirmed the model's realistic representation of spatial and temporal aspects of circulation at the reef complex including a tidally driven current regime, eddies, and downwelling phenomena. This novel combination of 3D hydrodynamic modelling and remote sensing in deep-water ecosystems improves our understanding of the temporal and spatial scales of ecological processes occurring in marine systems. The modelled information has been integrated into a 3D GIS, providing a user interface for visualization and interrogation of results that allows wider ecological application of the model and that can provide valuable input for marine biodiversity and conservation applications.
Highlights
In a time of unprecedented global climatic change and human pressures in the ocean, there is an urgent need to understand marine ecosystems, their dynamics and the mechanisms that underpin their structure and functioning
Hydrodynamics around coral colonies and entire coral reefs span a range of spatial scales in which fluid motions operate, starting with large-scale flow phenomena such as eddies produced by reef wakes, to smaller scale turbulent features created by reef topology and to finer spatial scales of flow occurring around single coral colonies and polyps [4], [5]
Ecohydrodynamics are widely accepted as key drivers of marine ecosystem structure and functioning in deep water settings such as seamounts, ridges and canyons, but empirical data and models of complex flow are still largely lacking
Summary
In a time of unprecedented global climatic change and human pressures in the ocean, there is an urgent need to understand marine ecosystems, their dynamics and the mechanisms that underpin their structure and functioning. Hydrodynamics are an important but inadequately considered constraint on marine ecosystems, despite much of the fauna and flora depending on adequate water flow for nutrient and food provision, oxygen supply and vital biological processes such as larval dispersal. Hydrodynamic processes operating on ecological timescales affect biogeochemical interactions that in turn constrain chemical and biological properties of ecosystems [2],[3]. Ecohydrodynamic approaches investigate the hydrodynamics constraints on ecosystems across different temporal and spatial scales [2] encompassing the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the ocean layers that sustain marine ecosystems. Lateral and vertical advection of particles plays a significant role in the functioning of coral ecosystems, and reef geometry plays a key part in determining patterns and rates of coral reef fish larval transport, reef connectivity and transport of other particles [6],[7]
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