Current-Topography Interaction and Its Influence on Water Quality and Contaminant Transport over Shelf-Edge Banks

Publication Title: Current-Topography Interaction and Its Influence on Water Quality and Contaminant Transport over Shelf-Edge Banks

Subject: Physical Oceanography
Water Quality
East Flower Garden Bank; Currents; Gulf of Mexico; Inertial Currents; Temperature; Salinity; Turbulence; Stokes Drift; Mixed Layer Depths

CSE Reference: Teague WJ, Wijesekera HW, Jarosz E (Naval Research Laboratory, John C. Stennis Space Center, MS). 2014. Current-topography interaction and its influence on water quality and contaminant transport over shelf-edge banks. New Orleans (LA): US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. 290 p. Obligation No.: M10PG00038. Report No.: OCS Study BOEM 2014-771. URL: https://espis.boem.gov/Final%20Reports/5420.pdf

Abstract: A series of topographic banks topped by coral reefs, designated as the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS), and managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is located on the Texas-Louisiana continental shelf in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. The role of the banks and their interactions in modifying the circulation and transport of materials is poorly understood. The objectives of this study were, 1) to produce a 3-dimensional view of the flow fields around a selected bank and to extend those results to flow over other banks in the region, 2) increase our understanding of the effects of topography and water stratification on circulation around the banks and the resulting energy subsidy to reef communities, 3) assess pathways for potential oil and gas impacts on bank communities from adjacent shunting and surface discharge activities, 4) examine oceanic response, over topographic bank (surface waves, bottom stresses, currents), to extreme, episodic atmospheric wind events, such as severe storms, 5) expand understanding of non-hydrostatic processes over the reefs, 6) expand understanding of diapycnal mixing over rough bottom topography and processes responsible for generating turbulence, and 7) understand lateral mixing process, topography induced wakes, and the resulting lateral eddy diffusivities.