Modelling Growth and Form of the Scleractinian Coral Pocillopora verrucosa and the Influence of Hydrodynamics
Figure 2
Schematic diagram of the simulation.
(A) A spherical object represents an initial growth state of the simulation (first growth step) (B) A simulation phase involves solving the Navier-Stokes equations (i) and the advection-diffusion equation (ii). (C) Accretion phase translocates absorbed nutrients from previous simulation phase to a new growth layer hence, after a few consecutive growth steps, spontaneous branching occurs.