On the parameterization of biological influences on offshore sand wave dynamics

Abstract

The bed of the North Sea is covered by sand waves and houses a great number of macrobenthic animals. These bio-engineers are known to have a significant influence on the stability of the bed and thereby on the geomorphology of the seabed. This paper proposes a parameterization of these bio-geomorphological interactions. Given the abundance of three dominant bio-engineers on the Dutch Continental Shelf, the predicted occurrence of sand waves, in which the parameterization is included, shows significantly better results, compared to the prediction for the default case without biology. Therefore, the inclusion of biological activity could be important to predict the occurrence of sand waves.