Measuring turbulence impact on plankton populations
Coastal waters in Europe can affect ecosystem health, fisheries, industries, tourism and overall quality of life. The amount of nutrients and organic matter existing is crucial regarding the dynamics of these processes. What remained to be determined, however, was the inherent understanding of how an important variable like small-scale turbulence can impact the interaction between plankton and nutrient dynamics. In order to arrive at this understanding, many measures were taken to create a database platform. First of all, existing data were summarised into searchable databases. Following that, experiments were conducted to determine the effects of turbulence on carbon and nutrient utilisation by planktonic organisms. A miniature sensor was developed to measure flow and a dynamic model was built in order to explore and predict turbulence effects on nutrient and carbon transfer. The model consists of a food cycle of organisms categorised into six groups. The development of the different organisms' population is represented by differential equations. Entered data consist of a variety of parameters including initial population concentrations, maximum nutrient grazing rates, efficiency factors, death rate and sedimentation rate. The changes of the parameter values resulting from different turbulent conditions were calculated. The advantages of the process lie in its flexibility in that it can be modified and make future predictions of probable turbulent scenarios. Additionally, it includes user-friendly interface software that can be moved between various platforms.
