TY - JOUR

T1 - Wave attenuation by submerged vegetation

T2 - Combining the effect of organism traits and tidal current

AU - Paul, M.

AU - Bouma, T. J.

AU - Amos, C. L.

N1 - Acknowledgements: We acknowledge the use of MatLab code for 0-crossing and wave reflection kindly provided by U. Neumeier and T. Baldock, respectively. The laboratory experiments were possible thanks to a Peter Killworth Memorial Scholarship, and M.P. thanks C. and D. Paul for uncounted hours of invaluable help during preparation and execution of the experiments. The remarks from 3 anony- mous reviewers helped to improve the manuscript.

PY - 2012/1/10

Y1 - 2012/1/10

N2 - Accurate wave height prediction along the shore plays an important role in coastal protection and management. To account for the effect of submerged vegetation in waveattenuation models, it is important to understand how the interaction between vegetation characteristics and hydrodynamic forcing affects wave attenuation. To determine the effect of vegetation characteristics, we used seagrass mimics that varied in (1) blade stiffness, (2) shoot density and (3) leaf length; to investigate the effect of hydrodynamic forcing, we studied wave attenuation in the absence and presence of a tidal current. Results show that wave attenuation is positively correlated with blade stiffness and for a given wave in shallow water, attenuation is dependent on a combination of shoot density and leaf length, which can be described by the leaf area index. The presence of a tidal current strongly reduced the wave-attenuating capacity of seagrass mimics, and this reduction was most pronounced at high shoot densities. Thus, most studies that have been carried out under waves only will structurally overestimate wave attenuation for tidal environments, emphasising that tidal currents need to be taken into account in future studies on wave attenuation by vegetation.

AB - Accurate wave height prediction along the shore plays an important role in coastal protection and management. To account for the effect of submerged vegetation in waveattenuation models, it is important to understand how the interaction between vegetation characteristics and hydrodynamic forcing affects wave attenuation. To determine the effect of vegetation characteristics, we used seagrass mimics that varied in (1) blade stiffness, (2) shoot density and (3) leaf length; to investigate the effect of hydrodynamic forcing, we studied wave attenuation in the absence and presence of a tidal current. Results show that wave attenuation is positively correlated with blade stiffness and for a given wave in shallow water, attenuation is dependent on a combination of shoot density and leaf length, which can be described by the leaf area index. The presence of a tidal current strongly reduced the wave-attenuating capacity of seagrass mimics, and this reduction was most pronounced at high shoot densities. Thus, most studies that have been carried out under waves only will structurally overestimate wave attenuation for tidal environments, emphasising that tidal currents need to be taken into account in future studies on wave attenuation by vegetation.

KW - Artificial seagrass

KW - Currents

KW - Vegetation traits

KW - Wave attenuation

KW - Waves

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84855668110&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3354/meps09489

DO - 10.3354/meps09489

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84855668110

VL - 444

SP - 31

EP - 41

JO - Marine ecology progress series

JF - Marine ecology progress series

SN - 0171-8630

ER -