An eco-geomorphic model for tidal channel initiation in salt marshes
Event details
| Date | 22.04.2014 |
| Hour | 16:15 › 17:15 |
| Speaker | Dr Marco Toffolon, Assistant professor, Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, University of Trento, Italy |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Abstract:
Tidal wetlands and particularly salt marshes constitute dynamic ecosystems of vital importance. Understanding the morphological evolution of the drainage network in salt marshes is particularly important, as channels transport water, suspended sediments and nutrients in and out of the tidal platform. Moreover, the development of the channels has significant interaction with the dynamics of the halophyte vegetation, highlighting biogeomorphological feedbacks that are currently one of the most intriguing topics in this field of research. In this seminar, a modelling framework is presented for the study of the channel initiation, based on the coupling of a morphodynamic module (Carniello et al., Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 2012) and a simplified description of the vegetation dynamics and the related eco-sedimentary processes, participating in the feedback between marsh sedimentation and plant growth. Channel morphogenesis is simulated starting from an initially flat microtidal basin under different scenarios of sediment supply and marsh ecology. Preliminary results suggest that the morphological response strongly depends on the modelling of vegetation dynamics, which still contains large uncertainties, and that the formation of the channel network in depositional contexts is characterised by peculiar geomorphic properties.
Short biography:
The research interests of Marco Toffolon cover different aspects of environmental fluid mechanics (physical limnology, sediment transport and morphodynamics, tidal hydrodynamics, eco-hydraulics) and some topics in fluid dynamics (e.g. flows in biological collapsible tubes). His main expertise is in mathematical modelling of environmental systems. After a Ph.D. in Hydraulic Engineering (University of Padova, Italy), he became assistant professor and then aggregate professor at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering of the University of Trento (Italy), teaching courses in environmental hydraulics and open channel flow. He is currently visiting EPFL until the beginning of May 2014.
Tidal wetlands and particularly salt marshes constitute dynamic ecosystems of vital importance. Understanding the morphological evolution of the drainage network in salt marshes is particularly important, as channels transport water, suspended sediments and nutrients in and out of the tidal platform. Moreover, the development of the channels has significant interaction with the dynamics of the halophyte vegetation, highlighting biogeomorphological feedbacks that are currently one of the most intriguing topics in this field of research. In this seminar, a modelling framework is presented for the study of the channel initiation, based on the coupling of a morphodynamic module (Carniello et al., Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 2012) and a simplified description of the vegetation dynamics and the related eco-sedimentary processes, participating in the feedback between marsh sedimentation and plant growth. Channel morphogenesis is simulated starting from an initially flat microtidal basin under different scenarios of sediment supply and marsh ecology. Preliminary results suggest that the morphological response strongly depends on the modelling of vegetation dynamics, which still contains large uncertainties, and that the formation of the channel network in depositional contexts is characterised by peculiar geomorphic properties.
Short biography:
The research interests of Marco Toffolon cover different aspects of environmental fluid mechanics (physical limnology, sediment transport and morphodynamics, tidal hydrodynamics, eco-hydraulics) and some topics in fluid dynamics (e.g. flows in biological collapsible tubes). His main expertise is in mathematical modelling of environmental systems. After a Ph.D. in Hydraulic Engineering (University of Padova, Italy), he became assistant professor and then aggregate professor at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering of the University of Trento (Italy), teaching courses in environmental hydraulics and open channel flow. He is currently visiting EPFL until the beginning of May 2014.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
- This event is internal
Organizer
- EESS - IIE
Contact
- Prof. Alfred Johny Wüest, APHYS - Magaretha Kamprad Chair and Prof. Samuel Arey, LMCE