Thursday, August 29, 2013

Graphing Annual Tidal Cycles

I made a graph many years ago of one year of tide predictions for Saipan, plotted with height as a function of time of day, month by month.  Each month is represented in a distinct color.  This exercise was inspired by Roy Tsuda, my Marine Botany professor at U of Guam.  Roy made a big deal of the times of the spring low tides, in for example the life cycle of a shallow water benthic alga on coral reefs, Hydroclathrus clathratus.   .  Roy was a student of annual cycles.   I was inspired, and observed Hydroclathrus sp.  in Chuuk, and sure enough, when the tides started to expose the algae in the "spring" (there is, technically, no spring in Micronesia), this species floated away to deeper water.

I made a new graph today, which I will post.  However, Wordpress doesn't seem to allow me to upload it as a photo.  It is an svg file.  Too bad.  Back to blogger?

The point being: this graph, visualiziing the distinct tidal differences, month to month.  Particularly the spring lows.

So here is another one, for Half Moon Bay, 2013:






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