Quantification of Water and Salt Exchanges in a Tidal Estuary

Water

Janesh Devkota²  Xing Fang¹ 

[1] Department of Civil Engineering, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849-5337, USA;Dynamic Solutions International LLC, Edmonds, WA 98020, USA; E-Mail:

关键词: Eulerian decomposition;    salt exchange;    numerical simulations;    flow characteristics;    estuary;   

DOI  :  10.3390/w7051769

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

A calibrated three-dimensional hydrodynamic model was applied to study subtidal water and salt exchanges at various cross sections of the Perdido Bay and Wolf Bay system using the Eulerian decomposition method from 6 September 2008 to 13 July 2009. Salinity, velocity, and water levels at each cross section were extracted from the model output to compute flow rates and salt fluxes. Eulerian analysis concluded that salt fluxes (exchanges) at the Perdido Pass and Dolphin Pass cross sections were dominated by tidal oscillatory transport F_T, whereas shear dispersive transport F_E (shear dispersion due to vertical and lateral shear transport) was dominant at the Perdido Pass complex, the Wolf-Perdido canal, and the lower Perdido Bay cross sections. The flow rate Q_F and total salt transport rate F_S showed distinct variation in response to complex interactions between discharges from upstream rivers and tidal boundaries. Q_F and F_S ranged from −619 m³·s⁻¹ (seaward) to 179 m³·s⁻¹ (landward) and −13,480–6289 kg·s⁻¹ at Perdido Pass when river discharges ranged 11.0–762.5 m³·s⁻¹ in the 2008–2009 simulation period.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.