Sediment dynamics on continental shelves can impact coastal geomorphology, habitat suitability, and biogeochemical cycling. In the coastal Arctic, for example, the rate at which sediment is transported to locations where it can be sequestered impacts the fate of carbon from thawing permafrost. To complement observational studies, this paper uses a numerical model to better understand variability in shelf sediment transport over timescales of hours to months. Specifically, a coupled hydrodynamic – sediment transport model, the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) - Community Sediment Transport Modeling System (CSTMS), is implemented within the Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave-Sediment Transport (COAWST) Modeling System, for the 2019 open water (nearly ice-free) season on the Alaskan Beaufort Sea shelf. Results showed that wave- and current-induced bed shear stresses frequently exceeded the critical stress for erosion and caused resuspension. Waves dominated bed shear stresses in depths shallower than 10 m and currents dominated in depths deeper than 20 m. Suspended sediment concentrations were highest during energetic wave events, although time periods with fast currents also caused resuspension, especially on the mid-to-outer shelf. When averaged over the open water season, modeled suspended sediment fluxes were westward, despite prevailing eastward currents, because of events characterized by fast westward currents. We expect these events may become more important for future sediment fluxes as storm frequency is projected to increase. Overall, the results improve our understanding of how sediment dynamics vary on the Beaufort Sea shelf during the open water season and provide insight into shelves characterized by strong currents and wave-induced resuspension.

The Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System (CSDMS), an international organization of over 1700 members, has a mission to enable model use and development for research in earth surface processes. CSDMS strives to expand the use of quantitative modeling techniques, promotes best practices in coding, and advocates for the use of open-source software. As a service for its members, the CSDMS Integration Facility (IF) maintains a code repository for numerical models. The CSDMS Model Repository, initialized in 2009, currently holds over 300 open source models and tools. To submit code to the Repository, a community member completes an online form, providing metadata for their code and selecting an open source license. In return for the code contribution, CSDMS provides a home for the model on its publicly accessible site. The model page is initially populated with the metadata provided by the author, but it can be edited and expanded to include documentation, examples, references, and graphics. If the code is available on a public repository, such as GitHub, a link to it is provided from the Repository; otherwise, the code is added to the Repository’s GitHub repository. The version of the code submitted to the Repository is assigned a DOI, making it citable. A QR code, suitable for display on a conference poster, is also created. Finally, the CSDMS IF has devised a model h-index, which gives a measure of a model’s visibility through journal citations. By submitting code to the CSDMS Model Repository, a model developer gets visibility, findability, accessibility, storage, and preservation for their model code. CSDMS gets a library of open source models that can be used for research. This can help accelerate science, since it’s often easier to use or modify an existing model than it is to start from scratch. The Repository also helps prevent model codes from going “dark” and being forgotten. Above all, the Repository serves the ethos of community modeling promoted by CSDMS.