Ecological　Connectivity 　Benthic−Pelagic　Systems and 　Central　Bay −Tidal　Flats　Areas，　and 　Its　Modeling

• Published in: Bulletin on Coastal Oceanography Vol. 47; no. 2; pp. 133 - 146
• Main Author: Sohma, Akio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: Coastal Oceanography Research Committee, the Oceanographic Society of Japan 2010
• Subjects: Brackish; Marine
• ISSN: 1342-2758; 2434-4036
• DOI: 10.32142/engankaiyo.47.2_133

Environmental measures i.e. tidal flat creation, nutrient load reduction from rivers, dredging and sand capping are expected to result in hypoxia annihilation and lead to a bountiful ecosystem through an ecological chain response of estuaries comprised of benthic-pelagic or central bay-tidal flat ecosystems. The Ecological connectivity Hypoxia Model (ECOHYM) was developed to demonstrate the mechanisms of ecological chain responses and its direction from two perspectives: (1) each biochemical and physical response, contributing to oxygen production/consumption (elemental approach) and (2) the whole estuary, composed of mutual temporal-spatial linkage of benthic-pelagic or central bay-tidal flat ecosystems (holistic approach). This paper first introduces the fundamental concepts and methods of the model development and its application to the estuary. Secondly, comparisons of the model results of hypoxia volume and higher trophic production between the present Tokyo Bay (Japan) (without tidal flats) and earlier Tokyo Bay (with tidal flats) are demonstrated. The results is one such example demonstrated due to modeling the linkage of benthic-pelagic central bay-tidal flat ecosystems.