THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SUBMERGED AQUATIC VEGETATION MODEL WITH BRANCHES

Abstract

 “Blue carbon”, or carbon captured and stored due to photosynthesis activity in SAV (submerged aquatic vegetation) ecosystems, has been attracting attention as a means of mitigating climate change. However, SAV creates complicated interactions with water flows, making it difficult to accurately assess carbon uptake and mass transport. In response to this problem, some studies have examined the interaction between SAV and flow, but the coupling between SAV and flow is insufficient and the branches of SAV are not considered. Therefore, this study aims to develop a coupled hydrodynamic-SAV model that takes branches into account. In addition, the developed model was successfully applied to analyze the results of laboratory experiments, revealing good agreement.