Simulating macroalgae in realistic marine environments
Collaborators: Kristen Davis (UCI), Christina Frieder (SCCWRP), Marcelo Chamecki (UCLA), Chao Yan (UCLA), James McWilliams (UCLA), Daniele Bianchi (UCLA), Anh Pham (UCLA) David Siegel (UCSB), Tom Bell (WHOI), Pierre Damien (UCLA), Faycal Kessouri (SCCWRP)
This work is primarily funded by ARPA-E (MARINER and CDR projects) with a goal of simulating the combined interactions of macroalgal farms with currents, waves, and biogeochemical cycling in realistic marine environments. These interactions are resolved by coupling a macroalgal growth model (MAG) to a circulation-ecosystem model (ROMS-BEC).
ROMS-BEC-MAG is presently being deployed to investigate the ecological impacts and carbon sequestration potential of giant kelp farms. A planned extension of this work is to leverage this modeling system (ROMS-BEC-MAG) to simulate natural kelp and its interactions with coastal currents and biogeochemistry. However, many measurements are needed to better constrain model predictions of cultivated and natural kelp systems, both for the physics (e.g., kelp drag) and biology (e.g., kelp exudation rates). Related Papers
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Below: Local effects of a 400 m x 400 m kelp farm demonstrated with a hindcast simulation of the Santa Barbara Channel with continuous release of a passive tracer (C) in the farm (black square). The instantaneous tracer structure (colors) illustrates 'farm wake' flows that develop due to the physical drag of the kelp on local currents.
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