iEMSs 2022 Conference - Brussels, Belgium

iEMSs 2022 - Session E.6

Using Models to Simulate and Understand Hydrodynamic, Eutrophication, and Acidification Dynamics in Coastal Environments

Stream    : E - Solutions and application for environmental problems

Session Leader: Christopher D Knightes and Brandon Jarvis, United States Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development
Description

Bays, estuaries, and other coastal environments are subject to a number of worsening environmental stressors, including climate change and acidification, shifting land-use dynamics, and increased anthropogenic nutrient loads. These combined stressors are predicted to exacerbate eutrophication of coastal environments, deteriorating water quality and impacting aquatic life via enhanced hypoxia and reduced water clarity. Nutrient enhanced coastal acidification, a process driven by excessive nutrient runoff and worsened by acidified waters due to climate change, is of particular concern due to harmful impacts of low oxygen and low pH to marine life. These water quality issues are further dependent on the changing hydrodynamic environment associated with future climate change and sea level rise. This session serves to provide a forum for presenting and discussing different modeling techniques and approaches to simulate current and future impacts to hydrodynamics and water quality of coastal environments. This includes modeling hydrodynamics of coastal ecosystems at different scales and complexities as well as simulations of water quality, including nutrients, hypoxia, acidification, and sediments. We also welcome presentations assessing different modeling management strategies, as well as presentations addressing the challenges, successes, and failures of model applications in coastal ecosystems.