Modeling of Heat Transfer on Tidal Flat and the Applicability of this Model

Abstract

Thermal environment is one of the important factors to affect the benthic communities, material cycle and water purification capability of tidal flats. To understand the function of tidal flats, it is necessary to understand its thermal environmental properties. However, there are still few biogeochemical models that consider heat transfer in tidal flats. Therefore, we have developed a sea surface, sediment surface and atmosphere heat transfer model based on field observations at “Yacho-no-ike” artificial muddy tidal flat in Ariake Bay. In addition, we investigated the applicability of publicly available meteorological data such as: AMeDAS (Automated Meteorological Data Acquisition System) and SYNOP (surface synoptic observations) to the model, instead of detailed local meteorological data.