rdf-syntax-grammar
mods:
  schema location: http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
  title info:
    title: Flow-topography interactions, particle transport and plankton dynamics at the Flower Garden Banks
    sub title: a modeling study
  name:
    name part: Francis, Simone, 1969-
    role:
      role term: creator
  name:
    name part: Jackson, George A.
    role:
      role term: thesis advisor.
  type of resource: text
  genre: bibliography
  origin info:
    place:
      place term: txu
    date issued: 2006
    issuance: monographic
  language:
    language term: eng
  physical description:
    form: electronic
    form: remote
  abstract: Flow disruption resulting from interactions between currents and abrupt topography can have important consequences for biological processes in the ocean. A highresolution three-dimensional hydrodynamic model is used to study topographically influenced flow at the Flower Garden Banks, two small but thriving coral reef ecosystems in the northwest Gulf of Mexico. Flow past the modeled banks is characterized by vortex shedding, turbulent wake formation and strong return velocities in the near-wake regions. The speed of the oncoming current, strength of water-column stratification, and level of topographic detail used in the model each serve to modulate these basic flow characteristics. Larval retention and dispersal processes at the Flower Garden Banks, and specifically the dependence of these processes on the nature of flow disruption, are explored by coupling a Lagrangian particle-tracking algorithm to the hydrodynamic model. Passive particles released from the tops of the modeled banks as mimics of coral larvae can remain trapped in the wake regions very close to the banks on time scales of hours to days, depending primarily on the speed of the free-stream current. Most particles are swept quickly downstream, however, where their trajectories are most strongly influenced by the topography of the continental shelf. Modeled dispersal patterns suggest that there is an ample supply of larvae from the Flower Garden Banks to nearby oil and gas platforms, which can provide suitable benthic habitat for corals. The flow disturbances generated by the modeled banks result in the mixing of nutrients from deeper water into shallower, nutrient-depleted layers in the wakes of the banks. The ability of the planktonic system to respond to such an injection of nutrients is tested by embedding a simple nutrient-phytoplankton-zooplankton ecosystem model into the hydrodynamic model. Plankton biomass in the flow-disturbed wakes is shown to increase in response to the additional nutrients.…
  note: by Simone Francis.
  note: "Major Subject: Oceanography"
  note: Title from author supplied metadata (automated record created on Apr. 14, 2006.)
  note: Vita.
  note: Abstract.
  note: Electronic resource.
  note: Mode of access: World Wide Web.
  note: System requirements: World Wide Web access and Adobe Acrobat Reader.
  note: Ph. D. Texas A&M University 2005.
  note: Includes bibliographical references.
  note: Text (Dissertation).
  subject:
    topic: Major oceanography
  subject:
    topic: larval transport
  subject:
    topic: Flower Garden Banks
  subject:
    topic: ocean modeling
  subject:
    topic: plankton dynamics
  identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/3236
  record info:
    record content source: TXA
    record creation date: 060428
    record change date: 20151103063919.0
    record identifier: in00002121925