Three-Dimensional Numerical Modeling Study of the Coastal Upwelling in the Persian Gulf

Environmental Constraints for Reef Building in the Gulf

“…After sinking, it fl ow NE toward the Strait of Hormuz where it exits as a bottom current with a velocity of about 10 cm/s (Koske 1972 ;Grasshoff 1976 ;Ezam et al 2010 ) . which is forced by coast-parallel winds of speeds >9 m/s blowing for at least 4 days (Sadrinasab 2009 ) . This coincides with absence of coral reefs along the Iranian mainland coast (Figs.…”

“…Reefs along the Kuwait mainland are only found at Ras as Zaur in southern Kuwait, and on the southern offshore islands (Kubbar, Qaro and Umm Al-Maradim; Gischler and Lomando 2005 ) . Other important rivers are the Hilleh and Mand in Iran, which also suppress, together with temporary upwelling along this stretch of coastline (Sadrinasab 2009 ) , reef building on the northern Iranian mainland coast.…”

The Impact of Geostrophic Transport on the Temporal and Spatial Structure of Wind-Driven Coastal Upwelling/Downwelling over the Persian Gulf

“…Validation of this hypothesis was problematic due to insufficient meteorological data. As observed by [29], at least four consecutive days of winds blowing parallel to the coast are needed to cause coastal upwelling in certain parts of the northern Persian Gulf. Long-term wind time series were used by [30] to investigate coastal upwelling in this area.…”

“…Previous studies have extensively explored various aspects related to the Persian Gulf, including mesoscale eddy activity [24][25][26][27][28], coastal upwelling [29][30][31], sea surface temperature distribution [32,33], and geostrophic and Ekman currents [34]. Furthermore, the impact of geostrophic transport on upwelling and especially downwelling has not been systematically investigated over the Persian Gulf.…”