Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Comparison of the influence of patch-scale and meadow-scale characteristics on flow within seagrass meadows
T2 - a flume study
AU - Aditya, Achmad
AU - Bouma, Tjeerd
AU - Folkard, Andrew
AU - van Katwijk, Marieke
AU - Callaghan, David
AU - de Iongh, Hans
AU - Herman, Peter
PY - 2014/12/3
Y1 - 2014/12/3
N2 - Hydrodynamic processes are an important agent of stress and facilitation in seagrass meadows, but little is known about the effects of the common phenomenon of heterogeneity of seagrass meadows on their interactions with hydrodynamic processes. To address this gap in knowledge, 4 heterogeneous configurations of Posidionia oceanica mimics were analyzed in a laboratory flume. The 4 configurations were created by placing 4 boards of mimics, i.e. 2 with high shoot density (~1100 shoots m−2) and 2 with low shoot density (~400 m−2), in different patterns (checkerboard, parallel, dense-sparse, and sparse-dense). Our results show that volumetric flow rate through each canopy, which is an indicator of the rate of supply of resources transported by the flow, tended to be greater in the low-density patches, regardless of the configuration. We alsofound that the Reynolds stress component τRe was positive in the lower-density patches (indicating that horizontal momentum was being transferred into the patch) and negative in the high-density patches (indicating that horizontal momentum was being transferred upwards out of the patch). Our results suggest that in resource-limited environments, hydrodynamic processes favor the growth of lower-density patches in heterogeneous seagrass meadows, thereby causing meadows to become more homogeneous over time.
AB - Hydrodynamic processes are an important agent of stress and facilitation in seagrass meadows, but little is known about the effects of the common phenomenon of heterogeneity of seagrass meadows on their interactions with hydrodynamic processes. To address this gap in knowledge, 4 heterogeneous configurations of Posidionia oceanica mimics were analyzed in a laboratory flume. The 4 configurations were created by placing 4 boards of mimics, i.e. 2 with high shoot density (~1100 shoots m−2) and 2 with low shoot density (~400 m−2), in different patterns (checkerboard, parallel, dense-sparse, and sparse-dense). Our results show that volumetric flow rate through each canopy, which is an indicator of the rate of supply of resources transported by the flow, tended to be greater in the low-density patches, regardless of the configuration. We alsofound that the Reynolds stress component τRe was positive in the lower-density patches (indicating that horizontal momentum was being transferred into the patch) and negative in the high-density patches (indicating that horizontal momentum was being transferred upwards out of the patch). Our results suggest that in resource-limited environments, hydrodynamic processes favor the growth of lower-density patches in heterogeneous seagrass meadows, thereby causing meadows to become more homogeneous over time.
KW - Seagrass
KW - Posidionia oceanica
KW - Hydrodynamics
KW - Heterogeneity
KW - Patches
KW - Shoot density
U2 - 10.3354/meps10873
DO - 10.3354/meps10873
M3 - Journal article
VL - 516
SP - 49
EP - 59
JO - Marine Ecology Progress Series
JF - Marine Ecology Progress Series
SN - 0171-8630
ER -