Journal
MARINE TECHNOLOGY SOCIETY JOURNAL
Volume 55, Issue 4, Pages 72-87Publisher
MARINE TECHNOLOGY SOC INC
Keywords
offshore wind; ocean interactions; Mid-Atlantic Cold Pool
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center SCeMFiS (Science Center for Marine Fisheries)
- National Science Foundation [1841112]
- Div Of Industrial Innovation & Partnersh
- Directorate For Engineering [1841112] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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The paper reviews existing literature on how offshore wind farms may alter oceanographic processes and emphasizes the potential impacts of changes in stratification on the Cold Pool setup and degradation. Research priorities should be identified to determine thresholds at which turbines and wind farm arrays may affect oceanographic processes.
The U.S. East Coast has 1.7 million acres of federal bottom under lease for the development of wind energy installations, with plans for more than 1,500 foundations to be placed. The scale of these wind farms has the potential to alter the unique and delicate oceanographic conditions along the expansive Atlantic continental shelf, a region characterized by a strong seasonal thermocline that overlies cold bottom water, known as the Cold Pool. Strong seasonal stratification traps cold (typically less than 10 degrees C) water above the ocean bottom sustaining a boreal fauna that represents vast fisheries, including the most lucrative shellfish fisheries in the United States. This paper reviews the existing literature and research pertaining to the ways in which offshore wind farms may alter processes that establish, maintain, and degrade stratification associated with the Cold Pool through vertical mixing in this seasonally dynamic system. Changes in stratification could have important consequences in Cold Pool setup and degradation, processes fundamental to high fishery productivity of the region. The potential for these multiple wind energy arrays to alter oceanographic processes and the biological systems that rely on them is possible; however, a great deal of uncertainty remains about the nature and scale of these interactions. Research should be prioritized that identifies stratification thresholds of influence, below which turbines and wind farm arrays may alter oceanographic processes. These should be examined within context of spatial and seasonal dynamics of the Cold Pool and offshore wind lease areas to identify potential areas of further study.
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