MARGINS Post-Doctoral Fellowship: A synthesis model for the Fly River dispersal system, Papua New Guinea

Trustees Of Boston University, Boston

Investigators

Abstract

The PI will merge all the existing results from the MARGINS Gulf of Papua focus site in a high resolution numerical model to represent the entire Fly River system. This holistic approach will allow determining how transport through the entire system alters the magnitude and delivery of sediments to marine depositional sinks. The PI will spend each semester of the two years postdoctoral fellowship at a different institution (Boston University, University of Washington, UC Berkeley and Colorado University), collaborating with scientists actively engaged in research projects in the Fly River system. The developed model will interface thorough the exchanges of water and sediment fluxes four components (middle Fly and Strickland rivers, tidal river, tidal delta, and continental shelf) and will be able to follow the path of water and sediments from the uplands to the shelf slope. The synthesis model will be used to determine the sediment dispersal pathways and fluxes in the entire system and assess gaps in the Source to Sink program. The model will also simulate how tides modulate sediment and water fluxes in the lower reaches of the river, the role of tidal floodplains in storing sediments and how sea-level rise and backwater effects create blocked valleys and tie channels in the middle Fly and Strickland rivers, among others. Broader impacts include the support of new, young post-doc who will teach undergraduate classes and provide a proof of concept for CSDMS. It will also lead to a comprehensive model for large rivers solving both terrestrial and marine processes can be used as a predictive tool to assess the impact of climate change, sea-level oscillations, and human activities on coastal areas. The societal relevance of the project is global, since many large rivers are densely populated.