East River


Below is the East River region. Select a highlighted area to see the results of the model prediction if hypothetical colonies were placed in that spot. The model predicts the amount of water filtered by the oysters if a colony were restored in the region you select.



When we run the model, we first need to know how long it takes to “flush” the region we want to study with new water. That is, if we were to place floaters all over the entire East River as shown, how long would it take for most of them to be flushed out of the river? We call that the “residence time”. The residence time will determine the length of time for which we will run the filtration model. A model simulation allows us to determine the residence time and the movie is shown below. We place hundreds of thousands of tracers, which are completely subject to the water currents, throughout the water column. Each tracer is shown as a green dot in the movie. By clicking play, you can watch as the dynamics in the East River slowly flush the green dots out of the river and into either the Upper Bay or out to sea.



Below we show a graph which describes the proportion of the green dots that are flushed out of the river over time. The y axis is the proportion remaining in the river, which is why it begins at 1 (they are all initially in the river!). The x-axis shows the time in hours that the simulation is run. As time moves on and green dots are flushed out of the river, we see the proportion decrease. After about 920 hours, the proportion is quite low, and we consider that a full residence time.