Impact of a model disease paste on the fluid-structure interaction dynamics of mimic seagrass

Seagrass meadows are essential marine habitats, responsible for sediment stabilization, habitat formation, nutrient cycling, and carbon sequestration. While seagrass is found along coasts worldwide, populations are declining at a rate of 7% per year and have been decimated by disease epidemics. Despite this, the physical mechanisms driving disease transmission in seagrass meadows are still largely unknown. A primary mechanism is the contact between a plant infected with the disease pathogen (a marine protist) and its healthy neighbors. In this study, we investigate the extent of plant-to-plant contact as a function of seagrass bed morphology and current in a recirculating flume. To detect this contact, we use fluorescent paste as the model disease vector. We first validate that our LDPE seagrass models exhibit the same geometry, size, and flexibility in the context of other studies (Folkard 2005, Lei and Nepf 2016), exploring methods to ensure this paste does not significantly impact our seagrass physical characteristics. We then investigate the flow-induced disease transfer under various flow conditions. We present results related to the fluid-structure interaction dynamics of our seagrass models and plant-to-plant transfer of material under a range of experimental conditions.



This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under award number OCE-2339079.