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Understanding and predicting anticyclonic flow around islands with shallow reef-lagoon systems

Walter Torres, Shodor Education Foundation, Inc.

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Scott A Lathrop, Walter Torres

Circulation around islands affects the transport of nutrients, contaminants, and sediment as well as larval retention and connectivity. Recent field observations of currents around a small island show a persistent counter-clockwise flow, however little is known about the mechanism(s) by which the circulation pattern is established and maintained and if it is a general feature of other island systems. Herein, I propose to use a combination of idealized and realistic computational fluid dynamics experiments validated by field measurements to identify the role of four candidate mechanisms that may explain this circulation: radial buoyancy gradients, alongshore radiation stresses, pressure gradients from mesoscale eddies, and upstream island wake turbulence features.