Université de Toulouse, UPS OMP-PCA, LEGOS, 14 av Edouard Belin, Toulouse F-31400, France.
Mar Pollut Bull. 2010;61(7-12):269-96. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2010.06.023. Epub 2010 Jul 15.
The south-west lagoon of New Caledonia is a wide semi-open coral reef lagoon bounded by an intertidal barrier reef and bisected by numerous deep inlets. This paper synthesizes findings from the 2000-2008 French National Program EC2CO-PNEC relative to the circulation and the transport of suspended particles in this lagoon. Numerical model development (hydrodynamic, fine suspended sediment transport, wind-wave, small-scale atmospheric circulation) allowed the determination of circulation patterns in the lagoon and the charting of residence time, the later of which has been recently used in a series of ecological studies. Topical studies based on field measurements permitted the parameterisation of wave set-up induced by the swell breaking on the reef barrier and the validation of a wind-wave model in a fetch-limited environment. The analysis of spatial and temporal variability of suspended matter concentration over short and long time-scales, the measurement of grain size distribution and the density of suspended matter (1.27 kg l(-1)), and the estimation of erodibility of heterogeneous (sand/mud, terrigenous/biogenic) soft bottoms was also conducted. Aggregates were shown to be more abundant near or around reefs and a possible biological influence on this aggregation is discussed. Optical measurements enabled the quantification of suspended matter either in situ (monochromatic measurements) or remotely (surface spectral measurements and satellite observations) and provided indirect calibration and validation of a suspended sediment transport model. The processes that warrant further investigation in order to improve our knowledge of circulation and suspended sediment transport in the New Caledonia lagoon as well as in other coral reef areas are discussed, as are the relevance and reliability of the numerical models for this endeavour.
新喀里多尼亚的西南泻湖是一个宽阔的半开放式珊瑚礁泻湖，由潮间带的堤礁环绕，被众多深海入口一分为二。本文综合了 2000-2008 年法国国家计划 EC2CO-PNEC 中关于该泻湖环流和悬浮颗粒输运的研究结果。数值模型的开发（水动力、细悬浮泥沙输运、风浪、小尺度大气环流）允许确定泻湖的环流模式，并绘制停留时间图，后者最近在一系列生态研究中得到了应用。基于现场测量的专题研究允许对海浪在堤礁上破碎引起的波高增加进行参数化，并在有限的风区环境中验证风浪模型。还对短时间和长时间尺度上悬浮物质浓度的空间和时间变化、粒度分布和悬浮物质密度（1.27kg/L）进行了测量，并对异质（砂/泥、陆源/生物源）软底的可侵蚀性进行了估计。结果表明，在珊瑚礁附近或周围聚集了更多的团聚体，并讨论了这种聚集可能受到生物的影响。光学测量能够原位（单色测量）或远程（表面光谱测量和卫星观测）定量悬浮物质，并为悬浮泥沙输运模型提供间接校准和验证。讨论了为了提高我们对新喀里多尼亚泻湖以及其他珊瑚礁区环流和悬浮泥沙输运的了解而需要进一步研究的过程，以及为这一努力进行数值模型的相关性和可靠性。
