Éditeur(s) : Estuaries Research Federation
Résumé : Estuarine systems are complex environments where seasonal and spatial variations occur in concentrations of suspended particulate matter, in primary constituents, and in organic matter content. This study investigated in the laboratory the flocculation potential of estuarine-suspended particulate matter throughout the year in order to better identify the controlling factors and their hierarchy. Kinetic experiments were performed in the lab with a "video in lab" device, based on a jar test technique, using suspended sediments sampled every 2 months over a 14-month period at three stations in the Seine estuary (France). These sampling stations are representative of (1) the upper estuary, dominated by freshwater, and (2) the middle estuary, characterized by a strong salinity gradient and the presence of an estuarine turbidity maximum. Experiments were performed at a constant low turbulent shear stress characteristic of slack water periods (i.e., a Kolmogorov microscale > 1,000 A mu m). Flocculation processes were estimated using three parameters: flocculation efficiency, flocculation speed, and flocculation time. Results showed that the flocculation that occurred at the three stations was mainly influenced by the concentration of the suspended particulate matter: maximum floc size was observed for concentrations above 0.1 g l(-1) while no flocculation was observed for concentrations below 0.004 g l(-1). Diatom blooms strongly enhanced flocculation speed and, to a lesser extent, flocculation efficiency. During this period, the maximum flocculation speed of 6 A mu m min(-1) corresponded to a flocculation time of less than 20 min. Salinity did not appear to automatically enhance flocculation, which depended on the constituents of suspended sediments and on the content and concentration of organic matter. Examination of the variability of 2D fractal dimension during flocculation experiments revealed restructuring of flocs during aggregation. This was observed as a rapid decrease in the floc fractal dimension from 2 to 1.4 during the first minutes of the flocculation stage, followed by a slight increase up to 1.8. Deflocculation experiments enabled determination of the influence of turbulent structures on flocculation processes and confirmed that turbulent intensity is one of the main determining factors of maximum floc size.
Estuaries and coasts : Journal of the Estuarine Research Federation (1559-2723) (Estuaries Research Federation), 2009-07 , Vol. 32 , N. 4 , P. 678-693

Droits : 2009 Springer
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/2009/publication-6631.pdf
DOI:10.1007/s12237-009-9160-1
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/6631/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Tropical islands are characterized by thermal and orographical forcings which may generate microscale air mass circulations. The Lesser Antilles Arc includes small tropical islands (width lower than 50 km) where a total of one-and-a-half million people live. Air quality over this region is affected by anthropogenic and volcanic emissions, or saharan dust. To reduce risks for the population health, the atmospheric dispersion of emitted pollutants must be predicted. In this study, the dispersion of anthropogenic nitrogen oxides (NOx) is numerically modelled over the densely populated area of the Guadeloupe archipelago under weak trade winds, during a typical case of severe pollution. The main goal is to analyze how microscale resolutions affect air pollution in a small tropical island. Three resolutions of domain grid are selected: 1 km, 333 m and 111 m. The Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) is used to produce real nested microscale meteorological fields. Then the weather outputs initialize the Lagrangian Particle Dispersion Model (FLEXPART). The forward simulations of a power plant plume showed good ability to reproduce nocturnal peaks recorded by an urban air quality station. The increase in resolution resulted in an improvement of model sensitivity. The nesting to subkilometer grids helped to reduce an overestimation bias mainly because the LES domains better simulate the turbulent motions governing nocturnal flows. For peaks observed at two air quality stations, the backward sensitivity outputs identified realistic sources of NOx in the area. The increase in resolution produced a sharper inverse plume with a more accurate source area. This study showed the first application of the FLEXPART-WRF model to microscale resolutions. Overall, the coupling model WRF-LES-FLEXPART is useful to simulate the pollutant dispersion during a real case of calm wind regime over a complex terrain area. The forward and backward simulation results showed clearly that the subkilometer resolution of 333 m is necessary to reproduce realistic air pollution patterns in this case of short-range transport over a complex terrain area. Globally, this work contributes to enrich the sparsely documented domain of real nested microscale air pollution modelling. This study dealing with the determination of the proper resolution grid and proper turbulence scheme, is of significant interest to the near-source and complex terrain air quality research community.
ISSN: 1352-2310

hal-01349208
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01349208
DOI : 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2016.05.028

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union
Résumé : International audience
We present a set of single-well injection withdrawal tracer tests in a paleoreef porous reservoir displaying important small-scale heterogeneity. An improved dual-packer probe was designed to perform dirac-like tracer injection and accurate downhole automatic measurements of the tracer concentration during the recovery phase. By flushing the tracer, at constant flow rate, for increasing time duration, we can probe distinctly different reservoir volumes and test the multiscale predictability of the (non-Fickian) dispersion models. First we describe the characteristics, from microscale to meter scale, of the reservoir rock. Second, the specificity of the tracer test setup and the results obtained using two different tracers and measurement methods (salinity-conductivity and fluorescent dye­optical measurement, respectively) are presented. All the tracer tests display strongly tailed breakthrough curves (BTC) consistent with diffusion in immobile regions. Conductivity results, measured over 3 orders of magnitude only, could have been easily interpreted by the conventional mobile-immobile (MIM) diffusive mass transfer model of asymptotic log-log slope of 2. However, the fluorescent dye sensor, which allows exploring much lower concentration values, shows that a change in the log-log slope occurs at larger time with an asymptotic value of 1.5, corresponding to the double-porosity model. These results suggest that the conventional, one-slope MIM transfer rate model is too simplistic to account for the real multiscale heterogeneity of the diffusion-dominant fraction of the reservoir.
ISSN: 0043-1397

insu-00373695
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00373695
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00373695/document
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00373695/file/Gouze_et_al-2008-Water_Resources_Research.pdf
DOI : 10.1029/2007WR006278

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Springer Verlag (Germany) Springer Verlag
Résumé : Direct numerical simulations of flow through two millimeter-scale rock samples of limestone and sandstone are performed using three diverse fluid dynamic simulators. The resulting steady-state velocity fields are compared in terms of the associated empirical probability density functions (PDFs) and key statistics of the velocity fields. The pore space geometry of each sample is imaged at 5.06−μm voxel size resolution using X-ray microtomography. The samples offer contrasting characteristics in terms of total connected porosity (about 0.31 for the limestone and 0.07 for the sandstone) and are typical of several applications in hydrogeology and petroleum engineering. The three-dimensional fluid velocity fields within the explicit pore spaces are simulated using ANSYS® FLUENT® ANSYS Inc. (2009), EULAG Prusa et al. (Comput. Fluids 37, 1193–1207 2008), and SSTOKES Sarkar et al. (2002). These computational approaches are highly disperse in terms of algorithmic complexity, differ in terms of their governing equations, the adopted numerical methodologies, the enforcement of internal no-slip boundary conditions at the fluid-solid interface, and the computational mesh structure. As metrics of comparison to probe in a statistical sense the internal similarities/differences across sample populations of velocities obtained through the computational systems, we consider (i) integral quantities, such as the Darcy flux and (ii) main statistical moments of local velocity distributions including local correlations between velocity fields. Comparison of simulation results indicates that mutually consistent estimates of the state of flow are obtained in the analyzed samples of natural pore spaces despite the considerable differences associated with the three computational approaches. We note that in the higher porosity limestone sample, the structures of the velocity fields obtained using ANSYS FLUENT and EULAG are more alike than either compared against the results obtained using SSTOKES. In the low-porosity sample, the structures of the velocity fields obtained by EULAG and SSTOKES are more similar than either is to the fields obtained using ANSYS FLUENT. With respect to macroscopic quantities, ANSYS FLUENT and SSTOKES provide similar results in terms of the average vertical velocity for both of the complex microscale geometries considered, while EULAG tends to render the largest velocity values. The influence of the pore space structure on fluid velocity field characteristics is also discussed.
ISSN: 1420-0597

hal-01174152
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01174152
DOI : 10.1007/s10596-015-9486-7

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Taylor & Francis: STM, Behavioural Science and Public Health Titles
Résumé : International audience
The dislocation microstructures in a single crystal of olivine deformed experimentally in uniaxial compression at 1090 °C and under a confining pressure of 300 MPa, have been investigated by transmission electron tomography in order to better understand deformation mechanisms at the microscale relevant for lithospheric mantle deformations. Investigation by electron tomography reveals microstructures, which are more complex than previously described, composed of and dislocations commonly exhibiting 3D configurations. Numerous mechanisms such as climb, cross-slip, double cross-slip as well as interactions like junction formations and collinear annihilations are the source of this complexity. The diversity observed advocates for microscale deformation of olivine significantly less simple than classic dislocation creep reported in metals or ice close to melting temperature. Deciphering mechanism of hardening in olivine at temperatures where ionic diffusion is slow and is then expected to play very little role is crucial to better understand and thus model deformation at larger scale and at temperatures (900–1100 °C) highly relevant for the lithospheric mantle.
ISSN: 1478-6443

hal-01667146
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01667146
DOI : 10.1080/14786435.2017.1367858

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley
Résumé : International audience
Due to shallow penetration of millimeter waves (MMW) and convection in liquid medium surrounding cells, the problem of accurate assessment of local MMW heating in in vitro experiments remains unsolved. Conventional dosimetric MMW techniques, such as infrared imaging or fiber optic (FO) sensors, face several inherent limits. Here we propose a methodology for accurate local temperature measurement and subsequent specific absorption rate (SAR) retrieval using microscale thermocouples (TC). SAR was retrieved by fitting the measured initial temperature rise to the numerical solution of an equivalent thermal model. It was found that the accuracy of temperature measurement depends on thermosensor size, that is, the smaller TC, the more accurate the temperature measurement. SAR determined using TC with lead diameters of 25 and 75m demonstrated 98.5% and 80.4% match with computed SAR, respectively. However, both TC provided the same temperature rises in long run (>10min). FO probe failed to measure adequately local heating both for short and long exposures due to the relatively large size of the probe sensor (400m) and time constant (0.6s). Calculated SAR in the cell monolayer was almost two times lower than that in the surrounding liquid. It was shown that the impact of the cell monolayer on heating due to its small thickness (5 to 10m) can be considered as negligible. Moreover, we demonstrated the possibility of accurate measurement of MMW-induced thermal pulses (up to 10 degrees C) using 25m TC. Bioelectromagnetics. 38:11-21, 2017. (c) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
ISSN: 0197-8462

hal-01436768
https://hal-univ-rennes1.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01436768
DOI : 10.1002/bem.21999
PUBMED : 27571392

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union
Résumé : International audience
Mobile-immobile mass transfer is widely used to model non-Fickian dispersion in porous media. Nevertheless, the memory function, implemented in the sink/source term of the transport equation to characterize diffusion in the matrix (i.e., the immobile domain), is rarely measured directly. Therefore, the question can be posed as to whether the memory function is just a practical way of increasing the degrees of freedom for fitting tracer test breakthrough curves or whether it actually models the physics of tracer transport. In this paper we first present a technique to measure the memory function of aquifer samples and then compare the results with the memory function fitted from a set of field-scale tracer tests performed in the same aquifer. The memory function is computed by solving the matrix diffusion equation using a random walk approach. The properties that control diffusion (i.e., mobile-immobile interface and immobile domain cluster shapes, porosity, and tortuosity) are investigated by X-ray microtomography. Once the geometry of the matrix clusters is measured, the shape of the memory function is controlled by the value of the porosity at the percolation threshold and of the tortuosity of the diffusion path. These parameters can be evaluated from microtomographic images. The computed memory function compares well with the memory function deduced from the field-scale tracer tests. We conclude that for the reservoir rock studied here, the atypical non-Fickian dispersion measured from the tracer test is well explained by microscale diffusion processes in the immobile domain. A diffusion-controlled mobileimmobile mass transfer model therefore appears to be valid for this specific case.
ISSN: 0043-1397

insu-00373705
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00373705
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00373705/document
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00373705/file/Gouze_et_al-2008-Water_Resources_Research.pdf
DOI : 10.1029/2007WR006690

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD AGU and the Geochemical Society
Résumé : International audience
Rainbow is a dome-shaped massif at the 36°14′N nontransform offset along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It hosts three ultramafic-hosted hydrothermal sites: Rainbow is active and high temperature; Clamstone and Ghost City are fossil and low temperature. The MoMARDREAM cruises (2007, 2008) presented here provided extensive rock sampling throughout the massif that constrains the geological setting of hydrothermal activity. The lithology is heterogeneous with abundant serpentinites surrounding gabbros, troctolites, chromitites, plagiogranites, and basalts. We propose that a W dipping detachment fault, now inactive, uplifted the massif and exhumed these deep-seated rocks. Present-day deformation is accommodated by SSW-NNE faults and fissures, consistent with oblique teleseismic focal mechanisms and stress rotation across the discontinuity. Faults localize fluid flow and control the location of fossil and active hydrothermal fields that appear to be ephemeral and lacking in spatiotemporal progression. Markers of high-temperature hydrothermal activity (∼350°C) are restricted to some samples from the active field while a more diffuse, lower temperature hydrothermal activity (<220°C) is inferred at various locations through anomalously high As, Sb, and Pb contents, attributed to element incorporation in serpentines or microscale-sulfide precipitation. Petrographic and geochemical analyses show that the dominant basement alteration is pervasive peridotite serpentinization at ∼160–260°C, attributed to fluids chemically similar to those venting at Rainbow, and controlled by concomitant alteration of mafic-ultramafic units at depth. Rainbow provides a model for fluid circulation, possibly applicable to hydrothermalism at oceanic detachments elsewhere, where both low-temperature serpentinization and magmatic-driven high-temperature outflow develop contemporaneously, channeled by faults in the footwall and not along the detachment fault.
ISSN: 1525-2027

hal-01115281
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01115281
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01115281/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01115281/file/Andreani_et_al-2014-Geochemistry%2C_Geophysics%2C_Geosystems.pdf
DOI : 10.1002/2014GC005269

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : Meteorological phenomena with scales lower than hurricanes, from extreme rainfalls to pollution peaks, represent important environmental and health risks in the Caribbean. These examples show the need to downscale large-scale meteorological data to island-scale fields.The main goal of the present numerical study is the analysis of the meso- and micro-scale mechanisms inducing diurnal and nocturnal circulations in the Guadeloupe archipelago. The Weather Research and Forecasting model is employed. The micro-scale results are obtained by the coupling of the 1-km simulated fields and the Large Eddy Simulation method. Then, in order to analyze the dispersion of a pollutants plume, the micro-scale outputs with 111 m of resolution are used to force the lagrangian particles dispersion model FLEXPART. The study has been conducted for three real cases of weather types linked with strong, medium and weak trade winds.The results of simulations, validated with available observed data, permitted to simulate all local circulations, including a nocturnal counter-current flow which may induce a pollution peak in the urban area of Pointe-à-Pitre city.These works, which may be applied to other Lesser Antilles islands, suggest many environmental and energy applications.
Les phénomènes météorologiques d'échelles inférieures aux cyclones, depuis les pluies intenses, jusqu'à la dégradation de la qualité de l'air, ont pour les Caraïbes une importance aiguë en termes de risques naturels ou de risques sur la santé. Ces exemples attestent de la nécessité d'utiliser des méthodes de descentes d'échelle pour exploiter l'information météorologique de grande échelle et dériver des scénarios locaux appliqués aux territoires insulaires. Les travaux présentés ont pour principaux objectifs la simulation numérique et l'analyse des mécanismes méso- et micro-échelles qui induisent des circulations locales diurnes et nocturnes sur l'archipel de la Guadeloupe, à l'aide du modèle numérique météorologique Weather Research and Forecasting. Les résultats des simulations micro-échelles sont obtenus par le couplage des champs modélisés à 1 km avec la méthode Large Eddy Simulation. Les sorties micro-échelles, à 111 m, sont ensuite utilisées pour forcer le modèle lagrangien de dispersion de particules FLEXPART afin d'étudier la dispersion d'un panache de polluants. L'étude a été menée pour trois cas réels de situations météorologiques correspondant à des alizés soutenus, moyens et faibles. Les résultats des simulations, après validation, et comparaison aux données d'observation disponibles, permettent de restituer l'ensemble des circulations locales et soulignent l'existence d'un écoulement nocturne à contre courant susceptible d'induire une forte pollution sur la zone urbaine de Pointe-à-Pitre. Cette étude, transposable aux autres îles des petites Antilles, laisse envisager de nombreuses applications environnementales et énergétiques.
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01074600

Droits : info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess
tel-01074600
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01074600
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01074600/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01074600/file/rcece_thesis.pdf

Résumé : Ce travail est l'expression d'une volonté de chercheurs, de la Carabe d'améliorer les connaissances scientifiques méso- et micro-météorologiques appliquées aux milieux insulaires sous influence des alizés et de développer la recherche dans ces domaines.On sait que le phénomène météorologique le plus remarquable impactant les îles de la Caraïbe reste le cyclone tropical. Mais d'autres phénomènes, a des échelles inferieures, telles que les pluies intenses, les houles, la dégradation de la qualité de l'air ont une importance aigüe en termes de risques naturels ou de risques sur la sante. Ces exemples attestent la nécessité d'utiliser des méthodes de descente d'échelle pour exploiter l'information météorologique et/ou climatique de grande échelle et dériver des scenarios locaux et régionaux appliques aux territoires insulaires. Ce défi est important car l'attente d'analyses scientifiques pertinentes dans ces domaines est grande.Les travaux présentés dans ce mémoire ont pour principaux objectifs la simulation numérique puis l'analyse des mécanismes méso- et micro-échelles qui induisent des circulations locales diurnes et nocturnes sur l'archipel de la Guadeloupe à l'aide de codes numériques météorologiques éprouves car largement utilises en recherche et en prévision opérationnelle.Ils constituent donc la première étude de modélisation numérique à haute résolution en basse atmosphère, par descente d'échelle dynamique, pour des intervalles d'espace compris entre 1 km et 111 m sur cet archipel.Le modelé atmosphérique Weather Research and Forecasting ARW V3.4 (WRF ARW), non-hydrostatique, a été utilise pour l'ensemble des simulations pour modéliser la troposphère depuis l'échelle globale à l'échelle de la turbulence.Trois situations météorologiques classiques réelles d'une durée de 48 heures, correspondant à 80 % des situations météorologiques observées dans la zone, alizes soutenus (AS), alizes moyens (AM), alizes faibles (AF) ont été examinées. Ces situations sont caractérisées par les valeurs du nombre de Froude local suivantes : 0,82 (AS), 0,41 (AM) et 0,21 (AF). Six domaines de modélisation ont été sélectionnés pour effectuer les descentes d'échelle dynamiques : D01 (maille de 27 km), D02 (maille de 9 km), D03 (maille de 3 km), D04 (maille de 1 km), D05 (maille de 333 m) et D06 (maille de 111 m) avec soixante-dix niveaux verticaux. Les quatre premiers domaines (D01 à D04) couvrent l'archipel de la Guadeloupe et sont utilisés en mode méso-échelle à l'aide d'un schéma d'ensemble de couche limite planétaire YSU. Les domaines D05 (couvrant l'île de la Basse-Terre et le centre de l'archipel) et D06 (couvrant la zone littorale et rurale du Petit Cul-de-Sac Marin et la zone urbaine de l'agglomération pointoise) sont utilisés en mode Large Eddy Simulation avec une fermeture de la turbulence 1,5 TKE 3D. Le modèle WRF a été forcé toutes les six heures par l'assimilation des champs d'analyses globales du modèle NCEP FNL (1° de résolution). Les simulations effectuées ont permis d'obtenir des champs de variables météorologiques 10-minutes à très hautes résolutions spatiales.Les résultats des simulations méso- et micro-échelles ont été confrontés aux valeurs expérimentales obtenues à l'aide de capteurs places sur des mâts météorologiques (campagne Atmo-Mangrov et réseau de mesure Météo-France). Il s'agissait d'optimiser l'utilisation des couplages de codes numériques tout en conservant la possibilité de les confronter aux observations expérimentales.Les résultats des simulations numériques micro-échelles, des différents cas (AS, AM, AF) sont utilisées pour forcer (c'est-à-dire définir les conditions limites) un modèle lagrangien de dispersion de particules : FLEXPART. Le système couple FLEXPART-WRF a été employé dans le domaine D06 pour étudier la dispersion du panache d'oxydes d'azote émis par la principale usine de production d'électricité de l'île.
The present work expresses the will of Caribbean researchers to improve the meso- and micro-meteorological scientific knowledge of the trade winds influenced island areas, and to develop research in these domains.It is well known that tropical hurricanes remain the most remarkable meteorological phenomena that affect the Caribbean islands. But some other phenomena, of smaller scale, such as intense rainfall events, swells, or air quality degradation, are of extreme importance for natural or health hazards. These examples show the need to use downscaling methods to exploit large scale meteorological or climatic information, and to obtain local and regional scenarios for the island areas. This is an important challenge, as sound scientific studies in these matters are eagerly expected. The aim of the research works exposed in the present dissertation is numerical simulation and analysis of the meso- and microscale mechanisms that induce diurnal and nocturnal local circulations in the Guadeloupe archipelago, using numerical meteorological models that are widely used in research and in operational forecasting.These works represent the first high-resolution (1 km to 111 m) numerical study of the lower atmosphere over the Guadeloupe archipelago. The Weather Research and Forecasting ARW 3.4 (WRF-ARW) model is used to simulate the troposphere from global scale to turbulence scale. Real cases of three typical weather types (80% of cases during a year) are examined during 48 hours : strong trade winds (STW), medium trade winds (MTW) and weak trade winds (WTW). These weather types are characterized by values of the local Froude number : 0.82 (STW), 0.41 (MTW) and 0.21 (WTW). Six domains have been selected for the dynamical downscaling : D01 (grid spacing of 27 km), D02 (grid spacing of 9 km), D03 (grid spacing of 3 km), D04 (grid spacing of 1 km), D05 (grid spacing of 333 m) and D06 (grid spacing of 111 m), including 70 vertical levels. The first four domains (D01 to D04) cover the Guadeloupe archipelago and are used in the meso-scale simulations with the planetary boundary layer scheme YSU (ensemble mean). Domain D05 (covering the Basse-Terre island and the middle of the archipelago) and domain D06 (covering the coastal and rural area of Le Petit Cul-de-Sac Marin and the urban area of Pointe-à-Pitre), are employed in the micro-scale simulation (LES) with the 3D TKE 1.5 order closure scheme. WRF has been 6 hourly reinitialized with the NCEP FNL global analyses (resolution of 1°). These simulations permitted to obtain 10-minutes meteorological variable fields with a very high resolution (111 m).Meso-scale and micro-scale model results have been evaluated with observational data from meteorological stations (field campaign Atmo-Mangrov, French Met Office).Once validated, the micro-scale model outputs have been used for the assimilation of the lagrangian particle dispersion model : FLEXPART. The coupling FLEXPART-WRF has been employed in domain D06, in order to analyze the dispersion of the nitrogen oxide plume emitted by the main power plant of the archipelago.

http://www.theses.fr/2014AGUY0735/document

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Royal Society, The
Résumé : International audience
Although many coral reefs have shifted from coral-to-algal dominance, the consequence of such a transition for coral–algal interactions and their underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. At the microscale, it is unclear how diffusive boundary layers (DBLs) and surface oxygen concentrations at the coral–algal interface vary with algal competitors and competitiveness. Using field observations and microsensor measurements in a flow chamber, we show that coral (massive Porites) interfaces with thick turf algae, macroalgae, and cyanobacteria, which are successful competitors against coral in the field, are characterized by a thick DBL and hypoxia at night. In contrast, coral interfaces with crustose coralline algae, conspecifics, and thin turf algae, which are poorer competitors, have a thin DBL and low hypoxia at night. Furthermore, DBL thickness and hypoxia at the interface with turf decreased with increasing flow speed, but not when thick turf was upstream. Our results support the importance of water-mediated transport mechanisms in coral–algal interactions. Shifts towards algal dominance, particularly dense assemblages, may lead to thicker DBLs, higher hypoxia, and higher concentrations of harmful metabolites and pathogens along coral borders, which in turn may facilitate algal overgrowth of live corals. These effects may be mediated by flow speed and orientation.
ISSN: 0962-8452

hal-01359387
https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01359387
DOI : 10.1098/rspb.2016.1137