Ocean Transport Pathways to a World Heritage Fringing Coral Reef: Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia

Jiangtao Xu; Ryan J Lowe; Gregory N Ivey; Nicole L Jones; Zhenlin Zhang

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0145822

Ocean Transport Pathways to a World Heritage Fringing Coral Reef: Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia

PLoS One. 2016 Jan 20;11(1):e0145822. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0145822. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Jiangtao Xu^{1

2}, Ryan J Lowe^{2

3

4}, Gregory N Ivey^{1

2}, Nicole L Jones^{1

2}, Zhenlin Zhang^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia.
² The UWA Oceans Institute, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia.
³ School of Earth and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia.
⁴ ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia.

Abstract

A Lagrangian particle tracking model driven by a regional ocean circulation model was used to investigate the seasonally varying connectivity patterns within the shelf circulation surrounding the 300 km long Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia (WA) during 2009-2010. Forward-in-time simulations revealed that surface water was transported equatorward and offshore in summer due to the upwelling-favorable winds. In winter, however, water was transported polewards down the WA coast due to the seasonally strong Leeuwin Current. Using backward-in-time simulations, the subsurface transport pathways revealed two main source regions of shelf water reaching Ningaloo Reef: (1) a year-round source to the northeast in the upper 100 m of water column; and (2) during the summer, an additional source offshore and to the west of Ningaloo in depths between ~30 and ~150 m. Transient wind-driven coastal upwelling, onshore geostrophic transport and stirring by offshore eddies were identified as the important mechanisms influencing the source water origins. The identification of these highly time-dependent transport pathways and source water locations is an essential step towards quantifying how key material (e.g., nutrients, larvae, contaminants, etc.) is exchanged between Ningaloo Reef and the surrounding shelf ocean, and how this is mechanistically coupled to the complex ocean dynamics in this region.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Coral Reefs*
Models, Theoretical
Oceans and Seas
Seasons
Water Movements*
Western Australia
Wind

Grants and funding

JX acknowledges support from a Scholarship for International Research Fees at the University of Western Australia. This work was supported by Australian Research Council Discovery Project grants (DP120103036 and DP0985221) with additional support provided by the Pilbara Marine Conservation Program as part of the State of Western Australia’s Net Conservation Benefits Fund. RL also acknowledges support through the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CE140100020). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.