Physical regulation of land-ocean cnp flux and relationships to macroalgal blooms across coastal zones of Maui, Hawaii

Ph.D. University of Hawaii at Manoa 2011.Includes bibliographical references.Physical factors can enhance the exchange between dissolved inorganic nutrient reservoirs within the coastal zone and can control their residence times. This dissertation aims to understand the contribution of sedimentary nutrient subsidies to rapid macroalgal growth being experienced off West Maui, Hawaii. Field-based sediment porewater data are used with a porefluid hydrodynamic model to estimate groundwater nutrient fluxes; these results indicate that, under typical wave heights, 100 % of the macroalgal-biomass P and less than