The Effect of Water Depth and Internal Geometry on the Turbulent Flow Inside a Coral Reef

The flow of water through coral reefs controls the transport of mass, momentum, and energy and, as a result, affects key processes such as feeding, photosynthesis, and reproduction. While it is often analyzed as a typical canopy flow, the flow through coral reefs is different from both terrestrial and aquatic canopies. A combination of a nonuniform vertical distribution of porosity and resistance and variations in relative submergence generates regions of high-velocity gradients, increased integral length scales and instabilities which have not previously been quantified in detail. Here we report on velocity measurements inside and above a laboratory reef made of 81 Pocillopora Meandrina skeletons, for a range of relative submergence and flow rates. Under the action of a pressure gradient, the mean velocity shows an increase in the wake zone, generating a potential source for mixing due to a second inflection point. Unlike classical boundary layers and other canopy flows, a quadrant analysis shows that the number of inward/outward interactions events is larger than sweeps/ejections inside the canopy wake zone, due to the sign change in the mean velocity gradient. The vertical distribution of the integral length scales shows a local maximum in the lower part of the wake zone. Finally, under fully submerged conditions, the stream-wise turbulent energy spectra inside the reef follow an approximate k^-7/3_x, as opposed to the expected k^-5/3_x behavior above the reef. Under near-emergent conditions, no fit to such a power law could be obtained.