Coupled Physical-Biogeochemical Modeling

Some of the most interesting questions in coastal oceanography lie at the intersection of disciplines. In the Coastal Dynamics Lab, we employ high-resolution numerical models which couple physical, chemical, and biological processes to address pressing questions in coastal and estuarine systems. Since 2019 we have been working on a project funded by the National Science Foundation with collaborators at UCSD/SIO (Geno Pawlak, Sarah Giddings, and Annie Adelson), the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institution (Rachel Collin and Kasey Clark) , and Western Washington University (Sam Kastner) to carry out joint observational and numerical experiments which will help us to better understand the physical and biological factors that lead to the formation and breakdown of hypoxic (low oxygen) conditions in Bahía Almirante in the Bocas del Toro region of Panamá.

Bahía Almirante is home to a range of important ecosystems including coral reefs, sea grass beds, and mangrove forests. It is our hope that a better understanding of the physical mechanisms and environmental conditions responsible for oxygen variability in Bahía Almirante will yield rich insight into benthic ecology, turbulent mixing, larval connectivity, hypoxia, ocean acidification and nutrient dynamics in other tropical embayments and estuaries.

Below is a movie generated by Sam Kastner from our ROMS-based model called “Modelo de ARchipiélago de Bocas” (MAR-Bocas) showing surface salinity fields in fall 2019. The strong influence of rivers is evident in the freshwater plumes (blue) and the cross-shore gradient in surface salinity.