Syvitski Student Modeler Award 2017
From CSDMS
Julia Moriarty, recipient of the 2017 Syvitski Student Modeler award
Virginia Institute of Marine Science, The College of William and Mary
Julia was selected for her submission, The Roles of Resuspension, Diffusion and Biogeochemical Processes on Oxygen Dynamics Offshore of the Rhone River, France: A Numerical Modeling Study. Her research project focused on developing and implementing a coupled hydrodynamic-sediment transport-biogeochemistry model, which represented a novel and significant contribution to the geoscience modeling community. The ingenuity of her approach lies in the coupling of sediment transport and water column biogeochemistry. The most novel aspects of this strategy were (1) incorporating the Soetaert seabed biogeochemical model into the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) to directly link the available sediment transport and water column biogeochemical modules; (2) altering the sediment transport module’s seabed layering scheme to resolve millimeter-scale changes in biogeochemical profiles; and (3) accounting for diffusive and advective exchange of solutes and particulate matter between the seabed and water column. Advisor: Courtney Harris, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary