The balance of salinity variance in a partially stratified estuary: implications for exchange flow, mixing, and stratification
Citable URI
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/10809As published
https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-18-0032.1DOI
10.1175/JPO-D-18-0032.1Keyword
Estuaries; Dynamics; Mixing; Density CurrentsAbstract
Salinity variance dissipation is related to exchange flow through the salinity variance balance equation, and meanwhile its magnitude is also proportional to the turbulence production and stratification inside the estuary. As river flow increases, estuarine volume-integrated salinity variance dissipation increases owing to more variance input from the open boundaries driven by exchange flow and river flow. This corresponds to the increased efficient conversion of turbulence production to salinity variance dissipation due to the intensified stratification with higher river flow. Through the spring–neap cycle, the temporal variation of salinity variance dissipation is more dependent on stratification than turbulence production, so it reaches its maximum during the transition from neap to spring tides. During most of the transition time from spring to neap tides, the advective input of salinity variance from the open boundaries is larger than dissipation, resulting in the net increase of variance, which is mainly expressed as vertical variance, that is, stratification. The intensified stratification in turn increases salinity variance dissipation. During neap tides, a large amount of enhanced salinity variance dissipation is induced by the internal shear stress near the halocline. During most of the transition time from neap to spring tides, dissipation becomes larger than the advective input, so salinity variance decreases and the stratification is destroyed.
Description
Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2018. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in he balance of salinity variance in a partially stratified estuary: Implications for exchange flow, mixing, and stratification. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 48(12), (2018) 2887-2899., doi: 10.1175/JPO-D-18-0032.1.
Collections
Suggested Citation
Wang, Tao, & Geyer, W. Rockwell (2018). The balance of salinity variance in a partially stratified estuary: Implications for exchange flow, mixing, and stratification. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 48(12), 2887-2899.Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Nutrient gradients in Panamanian estuaries : effects of watershed deforestation, rainfall, upwelling, and within-estuary transformations
Valiela, Ivan; Giblin, Anne E.; Barth-Jensen, Coralie; Harris, Carolynn; Stone, Thomas A.; Fox, Sophia E.; Crusius, John (Inter-Research, 2013-05-22)To test whether deforestation of tropical forests alters coupling of watersheds, estuaries, and coastal waters, we measured nutrients in 8 watershed-estuarine systems on the Pacific coast of Panama where watershed forest ... -
Evolution of Mid-Atlantic coastal and back-barrier estuary environments in response to a hurricane : implications for barrier-estuary connectivity
Miselis, Jennifer L.; Andrews, Brian D.; Nicholson, Robert S.; Defne, Zafer; Ganju, Neil K.; Navoy, Anthony (Springer, 2015-12-29)Assessments of coupled barrier island-estuary storm response are rare. Hurricane Sandy made landfall during an investigation in Barnegat Bay-Little Egg Harbor estuary that included water quality monitoring, geomorphologic ... -
Flow and geochemistry of groundwater beneath a back-barrier lagoon : the subterranean estuary at Chincoteague Bay, Maryland, USA
Bratton, John F.; Bohlke, John K.; Krantz, David E.; Tobias, Craig R. (Elsevier B.V., 2009-01-21)To better understand large-scale interactions between fresh and saline groundwater beneath an Atlantic coastal estuary, an offshore drilling and sampling study was performed in a large barrier-bounded lagoon, Chincoteague ...