Energy magnitude

Energy magnitude is especially important for rocky shore biota whose composition is markedly different in the north-east and south-east coasts of Australia in response to contrasting wave energy magnitude[6]. Water forcing transports planktonic larvae and pelagic ecosystems, provides a food source for sessile filter feeding biota[8], and transports water column biota, such as turtles, thousands of kilometres across the ocean.[5]

Energy magnitude is usually modelled in continuous hydrodynamic models, informed by digital bathymetry and other physical factors incorporated into mathematical models (e.g. AusWave, eReefs, BRAN etc.). These models include directionality or vectors, which are not considered in the static attribute of energy magnitude. For classification purposes it is more useful to summarize energy magnitude across time series (e.g. mean, standard deviation, maximum, minimum etc.) such as seasons, years etc. (e.g. eReefs Model) to create static spatial outputs suitable for classification at the required spatial scale (level). Outputs can be split into categories appropriate to that scale (e.g. for seascape and habitat scales the categories of very low, low, medium, high, very high).

Queensland Intertidal and Subtidal Classification Scheme

Energy magnitude is defined, for the purposes of the Intertidal and Subtidal Classification Scheme, as the relative strength of water column energy force, independent of the source of the energy which is a separate attribute of the water column.

Attribute category table - Energy magnitude

Additional Information

• Geological and Oceanographic Model of Australia's Continental Shelf (GEOMACS)
• eReefs CSIRO Hydrodynamic model (Temperature, Salinity, Wind, Current) Summaries (AIMS)
• What Causes Ocean Currents? - Esri map journal

References

1. ^ a b Andutta, FP, Kingsford, MJ & Wolanski, E (2012), '‘Sticky water’enables the retention of larvae in a reef mosaic', Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, vol. 101, pp. 54-63, Elsevier.
2. ^ Andutta, FP, Ridd, PV & Wolanski, E (2013), 'The age and the flushing time of the Great Barrier Reef waters', Continental Shelf Research, vol. 53, pp. 11-19, Elsevier.
3. ^ Boyd, R, Dalrymple, R & Zaitlin, BA (October 1992), 'Classification of clastic coastal depositional environments', Sedimentary Geology. [online], vol. 80, no. 3-4, pp. 139-150. Available at: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/003707389290037R [Accessed 12 April 2019].
4. ^ Dalrymple, RW, Zaitlin, BA & Boyd, R (1 November 1992), 'Estuarine facies models; conceptual basis and stratigraphic implications', Journal of Sedimentary Research. [online], vol. 62, no. 6, pp. 1130-1146. Available at: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/jsedres/article/62/6/1130-1146/98405 [Accessed 12 April 2019].
5. ^ Hamann, M, Grech, A, Wolanski, E & Lambrechts, J (2011), 'Modelling the fate of marine turtle hatchlings', Ecological Modelling, vol. 222, no. 8, pp. 1515-1521, Elsevier.
6. ^ Poloczanska, ES, Smith, S, Fauconnet, L, Healy, J, Tibbetts, IR, Burrows, MT & Richardson, AJ (2011), 'Little change in the distribution of rocky shore faunal communities on the Australian east coast after 50years of rapid warming', Journal of experimental marine biology and ecology, vol. 400, no. 1, pp. 145-154, Elsevier.
7. ^ Short, AD & Hesp, PA (1982), 'Wave, beach and dune interactions in southeastern Australia', Marine Geology. [online], vol. 48, no. 3-4, pp. 259-284. Available at: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/0025322782901001 [Accessed 12 April 2019].
8. ^ a b Wolanski, E (2001), Oceanographic Processes of Coral Reefs. Physical and Biological Links in the Great Barrier Reef, CRC Press, Boca Raton, ed. E Wolanski.
9. ^ Woodroffe, CD (2002), Coasts: form, process and evolution, Cambridge University Press.

Last updated: 15 July 2019