Using technology to understand water flow in a complex reef environment

This project, led my undergraduate advisor Dr. Mark Moline in collaboration with Scripps UCSD and University of Hawaii, dealt with resolving complex flows and understanding hydrodynamic controls and acoustical and optical water properties in tropical coral reefs in the Republic of Palau. Data is limited on water flow in complex environments such as coral reefs where the environment is far from planar, consisting of caverns, overhangs, corals, rocks, and strong currents, making the use of ROVs and acoustic and sonar positioning devices dificult to use. In 2012, I was invited with the field team to travel to Palau to deploy and maintain state of the art ocean technology such as Autonomous Underwater Vehicls (AUVs), Acoustic Wave and Current Profilers (AWACs), and optical and radiometric sensors to monitor complex water movement throughout the coral reefs of Palau. The ultimate goals of this research were to combine these multiple data sources to improve computer models used to predict water flow and test how optical data and remote sensing can estimate water flow based on different types of benthic habitats. This allows for greater range of time and space scales of measurements, allows for extended sampling durations, and lower cost per observation.