AUV observations of tidal flow over a coral reef paper

Sarah Giddingsnews

Cross‐Shore Structure of Tidally‐Driven Alongshore Flow over Rough Bathymetry” manuscript published on-line in Journal of Geophysical Research, Oceans! This paper, led by former graduate student Andre Amador, uses autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) data to examine the cross-shore structure of along-shore flow over a coral reef. Transport of heat, mass, and momentum over the inner-shelf impacts coastal distributions of larvae, nutrients, pollutants, and many other constituents. In this paper, AUV data shows a cross-shore structure of along-shore tidal flow that is well described with a simple momentum balance where friction becomes more important with proximity to shore. The paper further is able to estimate the bottom drag and roughness and show that the flow is dominated by longer wavelength roughness features. This paper combines an impressive array of data through a tidal phase average and compares it to a simple theoretical balance.