A coupled ecological–hydrodynamic model for the spatial distribution of sessile aquatic species in thermally forced basins

Lorenzo Mari, Cristian Biotto, Astrid Decoene and Luca Bonaventura

Ecological Modelling, 2009, vol. 220, issue 18, 2310-2324

Abstract: The life cycle of several sessile or highly sedentary aquatic species is characterized by a pelagic stage, during which propagules are dispersed by the water flow. As a consequence, hydrodynamics plays a crucial role in redistributing offspring. In this work, we describe an integrated modeling framework that couples a minimal – yet biologically well founded – ecological model for the population dynamics at the local scale to an efficient numerical model of three dimensional free surface flows in a thermally forced basin. The computed hydrodynamical fields are employed in a Lagrangian description of larval transport at the basin scale. The developed modeling framework has been applied to a realistic case study, namely the spread of an idealized aquatic sedentary population in Lake Garda, Italy. The analysis of this case study shows that the long-term interplay between demography and hydrodynamics can produce complex spatiotemporal dynamics. Our results also evidence that larvae can travel over relatively long distances even in a closed basin. A sensitivity analysis of the model outcomes shows that both biological traits and external forcings may remarkably influence the evolution of diffusion patterns in space and time.

Keywords: Larval dispersal; Diffusion patterns; Connectivity matrix; Hydrodynamics; Thermally forced flows; Limnology; Lagrangian modeling; Numerical methods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:220:y:2009:i:18:p:2310-2324

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2009.05.012

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