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Can the movement and breakdown of surfaces under physical forcing explain how marine communities are distributed?
Concept
Concept
Substrate mobility describes how physical surfaces move under fluid forcing from waves, currents, and turbulence. The behavior of a substrate—whether it is transported, remains stable, or breaks down—is determined by its size, density, and material strength.
This project is built around a testable hypothesis: that these physical dynamics play a fundamental role in shaping how biological communities assemble. If substrates that move, persist, or degrade in different ways consistently support different communities, then substrate mobility may provide a missing link between physical forcing and ecological pattern.
Substrate Mobility is the frequency of substrate movement, here shown as the difference between the characteristic fluid force (shear stress) and the force it takes to move the substrate (critical shear stress).
Substrate Mobility is the frequency of substrate movement, here shown as the difference between the characteristic fluid force (shear stress) and the force it takes to move the substrate (critical shear stress).
Settlement Plate Example
Settlement Plate Example
Plates are metal frames filled with specially formulated substrates mimicing 'soft' rocks like sandstone. Plates are placed in the ocean and monitored to see how ecological communities develop and change.
Approach
Approach
We test this idea using standardized settlement plates engineered to mimic soft hard substrates such as sandstone. These materials are structurally coherent but susceptible to gradual weathering. By tuning their composition, we create substrates with controlled differences in strength and degradation rates.
Plates are deployed across environments that span a gradient of hydrodynamic stress, from low-energy conditions to high-energy regimes dominated by strong waves and currents. This allows us to directly examine how material properties and physical forcing interact to influence the colonization, succession, and persistence of marine communities.
The result is a system where physical processes are not inferred, but explicitly built into the experimental design.
Comparative Framework
Comparative Framework
Using identical substrates across contrasting conditions enables direct, quantitative comparison. This makes it possible to ask whether similar physical regimes produce consistent ecological outcomes, and whether these relationships hold across locations. If consistent patterns emerge, substrate mobility could serve as a generalizable framework for linking the mechanics of moving and degrading surfaces to the structure of biological communities.
Why It Matters
Why It Matters
Marine systems are increasingly shaped by moving materials, from natural substrates to human-derived debris and infrastructure. These surfaces transport organisms, create new habitats, and alter the pace and pathways of ecological change.
At the same time, fluid regimes themselves are shifting. Changes in storm intensity, wave climate, and ocean circulation are expected to alter patterns of physical forcing across many regions. These changes will influence how substrates move, how long they persist, and how they break down.
Despite this, we lack a predictive framework for how these coupled physical changes influence the colonization, succession, and persistence of marine communities. This project addresses that gap directly. By linking measurable properties of materials and forcing to ecological outcomes, it aims to establish a new foundation for understanding and anticipating ecological change in an increasingly dynamic ocean.
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