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An accurate representation of physical and biological processes is crucial to resolve larval dispersal pathways and characterize connectivity of coral reef ecosystems. We investigate how hydrodynamic forcings drive larval retention rates during the bi‐annual mass coral spawning of the coral genus Acropora within a coral reef atoll (Mermaid Reef), located off northwestern Australia. By analyzing hydrodynamic conditions during 41 yr of historical spring and autumn coral spawning events, we identify typical and extreme hydrodynamic forcing conditions. Particle tracking using the output from a fine‐scale coupled wave‐flow hydrodynamic model forced with typical hydrodynamic conditions during coral spawning, revealed a mean transport of larvae eastward across the atoll. Transport was mainly driven by a combination of wave and tidal currents, where the residual tidal flow and unidirectional wave flow increased the net export of particles, and the oscillatory tidal (non‐residual) flow reduced the net export of particles from the reef. Importantly, however, numerical simulations forced with extreme hydrodynamic conditions generated by episodic tropical cyclones (11 out of 41 yr) showed large deviations from the typical eastward flow during autumn spawning, generating different connectivity pathways within the reef. Considering the substantial time larvae can be retained within reef systems, overlooking fine‐scale hydrodynamic processes may greatly overestimate larval transport distances between adjacent coral reef atolls. As a result, we emphasize the need to consider fine‐scale hydrodynamic processes within regional connectivity predictions, which is generally not considered yet critical to understand the capacity of reefs to recover following disturbances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The geomorphology of the Yangtze Estuary in the Changjiang River Delta in Eastern China has been the subject of extensive research. This study extends previous work to examine the influence of wind-waves on the mouth-bar, where about half of the river-borne material settles to the bed. The site is located just outside of Changjiang River mouth, which is meso-tidal and subject to seasonally varying river flows and wind-wave conditions. Modeling was performed with a coupled wave-current hydrodynamic model using TELEMAC and TOMAWAC and validated against observed data. Bottom Shear Stress (BSS) from river, tide and waves based on the numerical model output was used to infer the respective contribution to the evolution of the subaqueous delta. Our examination did not however extend to modeling the sediment transport or the morphological bed changes. The results suggest that (i) the dominance of river discharge is limited to an area inside the mouth, while outside, the mouth-bar is tide-wave dominant; (ii) considering just the tide, the currents on the shallow shoals are flood dominant and deep channels are ebb dominant, which induces continued accretion over the shallows and erodes the deeper parts of the mouth-bar until the tidal currents become too weak to transport sediment; (iii) whereas waves are very efficient at reshaping the shallow shoals, with the effect being subtly dependent on the depth distribution over the mouth-bar; (iv) the stability of shallow shoal morphology is highly dependent on the presence of seasonal wind-waves and characterized as “summer storing and winter erosion”, while deep channels perform like corridors of water and sediment, exporting sediment all year round. The nature of the mouth-bar response has important implications for coastal management, such as the ongoing deep water channel maintenance, reclamations and coastal defense measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electron-electron two-stream instability has been studied in two-valley n-GaAs embedded with nanoparticle (NP) cluster. We considered polar optical phonon as the dominant intravalley scattering mechanism and drifted Maxwellian to approximate the distribution of carriers between each valley. We derived the dispersion relation for electrostatic wave using hydrodynamic model of plasmas. While investigating temporal behaviour, we found two novel modes of propagation. These two novel modes are found to be evanescent by nature and propagate with equal phase velocities, but in opposite directions. The pre-existing modes retained their profile structures even in the presence of NP cluster. On the other hand, in the case of convective instability, no new modes are obtained but the propagation and gain profiles of the preexisting modes are significantly modified by the presence of NP cluster in the host medium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearshore hydrodynamics and sediment transport patterns induced by waves and tide adjacent to a structured tidal inlet with complex bathymetry are investigated to determine the potential causes of downdrift beach erosion. A coupled wave and hydrodynamic model is used to simulate the nearshore hydrodynamics and morphodynamics. Near the inlet, the tidal-induced pressure gradient dominates the wave radiation stress gradient only in the first half of the flood duration. The nearshore hydrodynamic pattern for the rest of the tidal cycle is driven mainly by the wave-driven pressure gradient. The wave-driven pressure gradient results from alongshore variation of water surface elevation induced by nearshore wave focal points caused by wave refraction over irregular bathymetry (with ebb tidal shoals and nonparallel shoreline depth contours). The resulting alongshore sediment transport patterns suggest that the direction of the time-averaged alongshore sediment transport rate near the inlet and at the downdrift beach is against that of the larger-scale net sediment transport along the coast. The inlet-adjacent time-averaged alongshore sediment transport rate increases for waves with larger wave height and an incident angle closer to shore normal in contrast to expectations under the assumption of straight and parallel depth contours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A coupled wave and hydrodynamic model was applied to the Kingston Basin of eastern Lake Ontario, a region with bathymetric variability due to channels and shoals, to assess the potential impacts on surface waves and wind-driven circulation of an offshore wind farm. The model was used to simulate a series of storm events with time-varying wind forcing and validated against wave, current and water level observations. The wind farm was simulated by adding semi-permeable structures in the surface wave model to represent the turbine monopiles, and by adding an energy loss term to the fluid momentum equations in the hydrodynamic model to represent the added drag of the monopiles on the flow. The results suggest that the wind farm would have a small influence on waves and circulation throughout the wind farm area, with spatial variability due to focussing of wave energy and re-direction of the flow. Overall, the results indicate that the wave height in coastal areas will be minimally affected with changes in significant wave height predicted to be < 3%. Larger changes to the strength of circulation occur inside the wind farm region with localized changes in current magnitude of up to 8 cm s − 1 . The results of this study may help to understand the impacts of future offshore wind farms and other offshore structures in the Great Lakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microbial pollutants from coastal discharges can increase illness risks for swimmers and cause beach advisories. There is presently no predictive model for estimating the entrainment of pollution from coastal discharges into the surf zone. We present a novel, quantitative framework for estimating surf zone entrainment of pollution at a wave-dominant open beach. Using physical arguments, we identify a dimensionless parameter equal to the quotient of the surf zone width lsz and the cross-flow length scale of the discharge la = Mj 1/2/Usz, where Mj is the discharge's momentum flux and Usz is a representative alongshore velocity in the surf zone. We conducted numerical modeling of a nonbuoyant discharge at an alongshore uniform beach with constant slope using a wave-resolving hydrodynamic model. Using results from 144 numerical experiments we develop an empirical relationship between the surf zone entrainment rate α and lsz/la. The empirical relationship can reasonably explain seven measurements of surf zone entrainment at three diverse coastal discharges. This predictive relationship can be a useful tool in coastal water quality management and can be used to develop predictive beach water quality models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As sea level rises and development of the coastal zone continues, coastal flooding poses an increasing risk to coastal communities. Wave runup can contribute many meters to the vertical reach of the sea, especially on steep gravel beaches, and wave overtopping is a key contributor to coastal flooding along coastlines exposed to energetic wave conditions. However, operational forecasting of wave overtopping has rarely been attempted due to the need for high-resolution inshore water levels and wave conditions, up-to-date coastal profile and sea defence information, and availability of models or formulae that can robustly predict overtopping for a range of coastal profile types. Here, we have developed and tested an efficient forecasting system for providing operational warnings up to three days in advance for the entire 1000 km coastline of southwest England, called SWEEP-OWWL, which is capable of predicting wave runup elevation and overtopping volumes along the energetic and macrotidal coastline, featuring embayed, sandy, gravel, and engineered regions. Existing flood warning systems have used the process-based hydrodynamic model XBeach, but due to the computational cost, have resorted to populating look-up tables using off-line simulations and only a single realisation of the coastal bathymetry. Instead, SWEEP-OWWL runs in 'real-time' using a computationally efficient suite of empirical shoaling, breaking, runup, and overtopping equations at 184 coastal profiles, forced with hydrodynamic information from a regional 1-km spectral wave and hydrodynamic model. Importantly, the forecast system can be updated with the latest coastal profile data with no extra computational cost, which is shown to improve the accuracy of predicted overtopping rate by an order of magnitude in some cases. Compared to visual observations of flooding events from live streaming webcams around the southwest, the system correctly predicted the presence or absence of wave overtopping with 97% accuracy and showed skill in differentiating between low and high hazard events. Reliable forecasts of wave overtopping could considerably enhance a coastal community's ability to prepare and mitigate against the risk to life, property, and infrastructure during coastal flooding events, and the developed system shows that this can be achieved using a single desktop PC for entire regions featuring both natural and man-made sea defences. • We develop and test an efficient forecast system for wave overtopping forewarning. • Predicts waves, water levels, and overtopping for 1000 km coastline on a desktop PC. • Correctly predicted the presence or absence of wave overtopping with 97% accuracy. • Can be updated with latest coastal profile data with no extra computational cost. • This is shown to improve the predicted overtopping rate by an order of magnitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]