Species Connectivity Between Offshore Wind Farms in the Bay of Seine -MARS3D and ICHTHYOP Coupling
Résumé
Offshore wind farms (OWFs) modify the hydro-sedimentary environment on a local scale and
possibly regional scale. Around their foundations, wind turbines are colonized by numerous
bentho-pelagic species, creating a reef e_ect. The presence of these species, which released
large number of planktonic larvae in presence of hydrodynamics features due to uid-structure
interactions, increases larval dispersal and retention between OWFs, impacting the connectivity
of species. So, this study is focused on hydrodynamic impacts of OWFs on larval dispersal and
species connectivity for the Bay of Seine (France), where three OWFs are under development,
using numerical modelling. An ocean circulation model, MARS3D, under met-ocean forcings
(tide/wind/temperature) is combined with a Lagrangian model, Ichthyop, for simulating the
behavior of four benthic species known to colonize wind turbine foundations. Hydrodynamic
forcings from MARS3D are computed in three-dimensions using three nested grids and with
the sub-grid scale parameterization of Rivier et al. 2016 1 to account for the hydro-sedimentary
e_ects of wind turbine foundations. First results have shown that the parameterization, initially
developed for monopile foundations, can reproduce uid-structure interactions for gravity-based
using a regional model. The velocity immediately behind foundations is reduced and the
turbulent intensity in the wake is increased. The distance between the foundations within the
three OWFs keeps the wake-foundation interactions low. Larvae are dispersed within the
OWFs, particularly along the turbulent wake, and retention effects are being investigated.