ALBERT

All Library Books, journals and Electronic Records Telegrafenberg

X
feed icon rss

Your email was sent successfully. Check your inbox.

An error occurred while sending the email. Please try again.

Proceed reservation?

Export
Filter
  • Sediment trapping  (5)
  • Estuarine circulation  (3)
  • Tidal river  (3)
  • Turbulence  (3)
  • 1
    facet.materialart.
    Unknown
    Effects of estuarine and fluvial processes on sediment transport over deltaic tidal flats (2013)
    Details
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2012. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Continental Shelf Research 60, Suppl. (2013): S40–S57, doi:10.1016/j.csr.2012.02.004.
    Description: Tidal flats at a river mouth feature estuarine and fluvial processes that distinguish them from tidal flats without river discharge. We combine field observations and a numerical model to investigate hydrodynamics and sediment transport on deltaic tidal flats at the mouth of the Skagit River, in Puget Sound, WA during the spring freshet. River discharge over tidal flats supplies a mean volume flux, freshwater buoyancy, and suspended sediment. Despite the shallow water depths, strong horizontal density fronts and stratification develop, resulting in a baroclinic pressure gradient and tidal variability in stratification that favor flood-directed bottom stresses. In addition to these estuarine processes, the river discharge during periods of low tide drains through a network of distributary channels on the exposed tidal flats, with strongly ebb-directed stresses. The net sediment transport depends on the balance between estuarine and fluvial processes, and is modulated on a spring-neap time scale by the tides of Puget Sound. We find that the baroclinic pressure gradient and periodic stratification enhance trapping of sediment delivered by the river on the tidal flats, particularly during neap tides, and that sediment trapping also depends on settling and scour lags, particularly for finer particles. The primary means of moving sediment off of the tidal flats are the high velocities and stresses in the distributary channels during late stages of ebbs and around low tides, with sediment export predominantly occurring during spring low tides that expose a greater portion of the flats. The 3-d finite volume numerical model was evaluated against observations and had good skill overall, particularly for velocity and salinity. The model performed poorly at simulating the shallow flows around low tides as the flats drained and river discharge was confined to distributary channels, due in part to limitations in grid resolution, seabed sediment and bathymetric data, and the wetting-and-drying scheme. Consequently, the model predicted greater sediment retention on the flats than was observed.
    Description: This work was supported by the Office of Naval Research.
    Keywords: Tidal flats ; Sediment transport ; Sediment trapping ; Distributary channels ; Stratification ; Salinity fronts ; Tidal asymmetry ; Velocity skewness ; Numerical model
    Repository Name: Woods Hole Open Access Server
    Type: Preprint
    Format: application/pdf
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
    PAPER (OA)
  • 2
    facet.materialart.
    Unknown
    Quantifying vertical mixing in estuaries (2009)
    Springer
    Details
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: © 2008 The Authors. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License. The definitive version was published in Environmental Fluid Mechanics 8 (2008): 495-509, doi:10.1007/s10652-008-9107-2.
    Description: Estuarine turbulence is notable in that both the dissipation rate and the buoyancy frequency extend to much higher values than in other natural environments. The high dissipation rates lead to a distinct inertial subrange in the velocity and scalar spectra, which can be exploited for quantifying the turbulence quantities. However, high buoyancy frequencies lead to small Ozmidov scales, which require high sampling rates and small spatial aperture to resolve the turbulent fluxes. A set of observations in a highly stratified estuary demonstrate the effectiveness of a vessel-mounted turbulence array for resolving turbulent processes, and for relating the turbulence to the forcing by the Reynolds-averaged flow. The observations focus on the ebb, when most of the buoyancy flux occurs. Three stages of mixing are observed: (1) intermittent and localized but intense shear instability during the early ebb; (2) continuous and relatively homogeneous shear-induced mixing during the mid-ebb, and weakly stratified, boundary-layer mixing during the late ebb. The mixing efficiency as quantified by the flux Richardson number Rf was frequently observed to be higher than the canonical value of 0.15 from Osborn (J Phys Oceanogr 10:83–89, 1980). The high efficiency may be linked to the temporal–spatial evolution of shear instabilities.
    Description: The funding for this research was obtained from ONR Grant N00014-06-1-0292 and NSF Grant OCE-0729547.
    Keywords: Turbulence ; Estuaries ; Shear instability ; Buoyancy flux
    Repository Name: Woods Hole Open Access Server
    Type: Article
    Format: application/pdf
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
    PAPER (OA)
  • 3
    facet.materialart.
    Unknown
    Turbulent mixing in a strongly forced salt wedge estuary (2011)
    American Geophysical Union
    Details
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2010. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 115 (2010): C12024, doi:10.1029/2009JC006061.
    Description: Turbulent mixing of salt is examined in a shallow salt wedge estuary with strong fluvial and tidal forcing. A numerical model of the Merrimack River estuary is used to quantify turbulent stress, shear production, and buoyancy flux. Little mixing occurs during flood tides despite strong velocities because bottom boundary layer turbulence is dislocated from stratification elevated in the water column. During ebbs, bottom salinity fronts form at a series of bathymetric transitions. At the fronts, near-bottom velocity and shear stress are low, but shear, stress, and buoyancy flux are elevated at the pycnocline. Internal shear layers provide the dominant source of mixing during the early ebb. Later in the ebb, the pycnocline broadens and moves down such that boundary layer turbulence dominates mixing. Mixing occurs primarily during ebbs, with internal shear mixing accounting for about 50% of the total buoyancy flux. Both the relative contribution of internal shear mixing and the mixing efficiency increase with discharge, with bulk mixing efficiencies between 0.02 and 0.07. Buoyancy fluxes in the estuary increase with discharge up to about 400 m3 s−1 above which a majority of the mixing occurs offshore. Observed buoyancy fluxes were more consistent with the k-ɛ turbulence closure than the Mellor-Yamada closure, and more total mixing occurred in the estuary with k-ɛ. Calculated buoyancy fluxes were sensitive to horizontal grid resolution, as a lower resolution grid yielded less integrated buoyancy flux in the estuary and exported lower salinity water but likely had greater numerical mixing.
    Description: This research was funded by National Science Foundation Grant OCE‐0452054. Ralston also received support from The Penzance Endowed Fund in Support of Assistant Scientists and The John F. and Dorothy H. Magee Fund in Support of Scientific Staff at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
    Keywords: Mixing ; Turbulence ; Salt wedge estuary
    Repository Name: Woods Hole Open Access Server
    Type: Article
    Format: application/pdf
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
    PAPER (OA)
  • 4
    facet.materialart.
    Unknown
    Bathymetric controls on sediment transport in the Hudson River estuary : lateral asymmetry and frontal trapping (2012)
    American Geophysical Union
    Details
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 117 (2012): C10013, doi:10.1029/2012JC008124.
    Description: Analyses of field observations and numerical model results have identified that sediment transport in the Hudson River estuary is laterally segregated between channel and shoals, features frontal trapping at multiple locations along the estuary, and varies significantly over the spring-neap tidal cycle. Lateral gradients in depth, and therefore baroclinic pressure gradient and stratification, control the lateral distribution of sediment transport. Within the saline estuary, sediment fluxes are strongly landward in the channel and seaward on the shoals. At multiple locations, bottom salinity fronts form at bathymetric transitions in width or depth. Sediment convergences near the fronts create local maxima in suspended-sediment concentration and deposition, providing a general mechanism for creation of secondary estuarine turbidity maxima at bathymetric transitions. The lateral bathymetry also affects the spring-neap cycle of sediment suspension and deposition. In regions with broad, shallow shoals, the shoals are erosional and the channel is depositional during neap tides, with the opposite pattern during spring tides. Narrower, deeper shoals are depositional during neaps and erosional during springs. In each case, the lateral transfer is from regions of higher to lower bed stress, and depends on the elevation of the pycnocline relative to the bed. Collectively, the results indicate that lateral and along-channel gradients in bathymetry and thus stratification, bed stress, and sediment flux lead to an unsteady, heterogeneous distribution of sediment transport and trapping along the estuary rather than trapping solely at a turbidity maximum at the limit of the salinity intrusion.
    Description: This research was funded by a grant from the Hudson River Foundation (#002/07A). D.R. was partially supported by the Office of Naval Research (N00014-08-1-0846).
    Description: 2013-04-17
    Keywords: Estuarine turbidity maximum ; Lateral sediment distribution ; Salinity fronts ; Sediment flux ; Sediment trapping ; Stratification
    Repository Name: Woods Hole Open Access Server
    Type: Article
    Format: application/pdf
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
    PAPER (OA)
  • 5
    facet.materialart.
    Unknown
    Sediment transport and deposition on a river-dominated tidal flat : an idealized model study (2010)
    American Geophysical Union
    Details
    Publication Date: 2022-05-26
    Description: Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2010. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 115 (2010): C10040, doi:10.1029/2010JC006248.
    Description: A 3-D hydrodynamic model is used to investigate how different size classes of river-derived sediment are transported, exported and trapped on an idealized, river-dominated tidal flat. The model is composed of a river channel flanked by sloping tidal flats, a configuration motivated by the intertidal region of the Skagit River mouth in Washington State, United States. It is forced by mixed tides and a pulse of freshwater and sediment with various settling velocities. In this system, the river not only influences stratification but also contributes a significant cross-shore transport. As a result, the bottom stress is strongly ebb-dominated in the channel because of the seaward advance of strong river flow as the tidal flats drain during ebbs. Sediment deposition patterns and mass budgets are sensitive to settling velocity. The lateral sediment spreading scales with an advective distance (settling time multiplied by lateral flow speed), thereby confining the fast settling sediment classes in the channel. Residual sediment transport is landward on the flats, because of settling lag, but is strongly seaward in the channel. The seaward transport mainly occurs during big ebbs and is controlled by a length scale ratio Ld/XWL, where Ld is a cross-shore advective distance (settling time multiplied by river outlet velocity), and XWL is the immersed cross-shore length of the intertidal zone. Sediment trapping requires Ld/XWL 〈 1, leading to more trapping for the faster settling classes. Sensitivity studies show that including stratification and reducing tidal range both favor sediment trapping, whereas varying channel geometries and asymmetry of tides has relatively small impacts. Implications of the modeling results on the south Skagit intertidal region are discussed.
    Description: SNC is supported by a WHOI/USGS postdoctoral scholarship. The field program on the Skagit intertidal region is supported by an ONR grant N00014-08-1-0790.
    Keywords: Sediment trapping ; Tidal flat
    Repository Name: Woods Hole Open Access Server
    Type: Article
    Format: application/pdf
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
    PAPER (OA)
  • 6
    facet.materialart.
    Unknown
    Stratified turbulence and mixing efficiency in a salt wedge estuary (2016)
    American Meteorological Society
    Details
    Publication Date: 2022-05-26
    Description: Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2016. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Physical Oceanography 46 (2016): 1769-1783, doi:10.1175/JPO-D-15-0193.1.
    Description: High-resolution observations of velocity, salinity, and turbulence quantities were collected in a salt wedge estuary to quantify the efficiency of stratified mixing in a high-energy environment. During the ebb tide, a midwater column layer of strong shear and stratification developed, exhibiting near-critical gradient Richardson numbers and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) dissipation rates greater than 10−4 m2 s−3, based on inertial subrange spectra. Collocated estimates of scalar variance dissipation from microconductivity sensors were used to estimate buoyancy flux and the flux Richardson number Rif. The majority of the samples were outside the boundary layer, based on the ratio of Ozmidov and boundary length scales, and had a mean Rif = 0.23 ± 0.01 (dissipation flux coefficient Γ = 0.30 ± 0.02) and a median gradient Richardson number Rig = 0.25. The boundary-influenced subset of the data had decreased efficiency, with Rif = 0.17 ± 0.02 (Γ = 0.20 ± 0.03) and median Rig = 0.16. The relationship between Rif and Rig was consistent with a turbulent Prandtl number of 1. Acoustic backscatter imagery revealed coherent braids in the mixing layer during the early ebb and a transition to more homogeneous turbulence in the midebb. A temporal trend in efficiency was also visible, with higher efficiency in the early ebb and lower efficiency in the late ebb when the bottom boundary layer had greater influence on the flow. These findings show that mixing efficiency of turbulence in a continuously forced, energetic, free shear layer can be significantly greater than the broadly cited upper bound from Osborn of 0.15–0.17.
    Description: Holleman was supported by the Devonshire Scholars program. The field study and the coauthors’ contributions were supported by NSF Grant OCE 0926427.
    Description: 2016-11-24
    Keywords: Circulation/ Dynamics ; Mixing ; Shear structure/flows ; Turbulence ; Observational techniques and algorithms ; Ship observations
    Repository Name: Woods Hole Open Access Server
    Type: Article
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
    PAPER (OA)
  • 7
    facet.materialart.
    Unknown
    Mechanisms of exchange flow in an estuary with a narrow, deep channel and wide, shallow shoals (2020)
    Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    Details
    Publication Date: 2022-10-21
    Description: Delaware Bay is a large estuary with a deep, relatively narrow channel and wide, shallow banks, providing a clear example of a “channel-shoal” estuary. This numerical modeling study addresses the exchange flow in this channel-shoal estuary, specifically to examine how the lateral geometry affects the strength and mechanisms of exchange flow. We find that the exchange flow is exclusively confined to the channel region during spring tides, when stratification is weak, and it broadens laterally over the shoals during the more stratified neap tides, but still occupies a small fraction of the total width of the estuary. Exchange flow is relatively weak during spring tides, resulting from oscillatory shear dispersion in the channel augmented by weak Eulerian exchange flow. During neap tides, stratification and shear increase markedly, resulting in a strong Eulerian residual shear flow, with a net exchange flow roughly 5 times that of the spring tide. During both spring and neap tides, lateral salinity gradients generated by differential advection at the edge of the channel drive a tidally oscillating cross-channel flow, which strongly influences the stratification, along-estuary salt balance and momentum balance. The lateral flow also causes the phase variation in salinity that results in oscillatory shear dispersion during both spring and neap tides and is a significant advective momentum source driving the residual circulation. Thus, although the shoals make a negligible direct contribution to the exchange flow, the salinity gradients between the channel and the shoal are critical to the stratification and exchange flow within the estuarine channel.
    Description: National Science Foundation (NSF): OCE-1325136; National Science Foundation (NSF): OCE-1634490; National Science Foundation (NSF): Jia-Lin Chen OCE-1736539
    Keywords: Estuarine circulation ; Tidal dispersion ; Lateral circulation
    Repository Name: Woods Hole Open Access Server
    Type: Dataset
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
    PAPER (OA)
  • 8
    facet.materialart.
    Unknown
    Bigger tides, less flooding: Effects of dredging on barotropic dynamics in a highly modified estuary. (2019)
    American Geophysical Union
    Details
    Publication Date: 2022-10-20
    Description: Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2019. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans 124 (2019): 196-211, doi:10.1029/2018JC014313.
    Description: Since the late nineteenth century, channel depths have more than doubled in parts of New York Harbor and the tidal Hudson River, wetlands have been reclaimed and navigational channels widened, and river flow has been regulated. To quantify the effects of these modifications, observations and numerical simulations using historical and modern bathymetry are used to analyze changes in the barotropic dynamics. Model results and water level records for Albany (1868 to present) and New York Harbor (1844 to present) recovered from archives show that the tidal amplitude has more than doubled near the head of tides, whereas increases in the lower estuary have been slight (〈10%). Channel deepening has reduced the effective drag in the upper tidal river, shifting the system from hyposynchronous (tide decaying landward) to hypersynchronous (tide amplifying). Similarly, modeling shows that coastal storm effects propagate farther landward, with a 20% increase in amplitude for a major event. In contrast, the decrease in friction with channel deepening has lowered the tidally averaged water level during discharge events, more than compensating for increased surge amplitude. Combined with river regulation that reduced peak discharges, the overall risk of extreme water levels in the upper tidal river decreased after channel construction, reducing the water level for the 10‐year recurrence interval event by almost 3 m. Mean water level decreased sharply with channel modifications around 1930, and subsequent decadal variability has depended both on river discharge and sea level rise. Channel construction has only slightly altered tidal and storm surge amplitudes in the lower estuary.
    Description: Funding for D. K. R., W. R. G., and C. K. S. was provided by NSF Coastal SEES awards OCE-1325136 and OCE-1325102. Funding for S.T. and H. Z. was provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (award W1927 N-14-2-0015), and NSF (Career Award 1455350). Data supporting this study are posted to Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1298636).
    Description: 2019-06-11
    Keywords: Barotropic tides ; Flood frequency ; Storm surge ; Dredging ; Estuary ; Tidal river
    Repository Name: Woods Hole Open Access Server
    Type: Article
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
    PAPER (OA)
  • 9
    facet.materialart.
    Unknown
    Response to channel deepening of the salinity intrusion, estuarine circulation, and stratification in an urbanized estuary (2019)
    American Geophysical Union
    Details
    Publication Date: 2022-10-20
    Description: Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2019. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans 124(7), (2019): 4784-4802, doi: 10.1029/2019JC015006.
    Description: Modifications for navigation since the late 1800s have increased channel depth (H) in the lower Hudson River estuary by 10–30%, and at the mouth the depth has more than doubled. Observations along the lower estuary show that both salinity and stratification have increased over the past century. Model results comparing predredging bathymetry from the 1860s with modern conditions indicate an increase in the salinity intrusion of about 30%, which is roughly consistent with the H5/3 scaling expected from theory for salt flux dominated by steady exchange. While modifications including a recent deepening project have been concentrated near the mouth, the changes increase salinity and threaten drinking water supplies more than 100 km landward. The deepening has not changed the responses to river discharge (Qr) of the salinity intrusion (~Qr−1/3) or mean stratification (Qr2/3). Surprisingly, the increase in salinity intrusion with channel deepening results in almost no change in the estuarine circulation. This contrasts sharply with local scaling based on local dynamics of an H2 dependence, but it is consistent with a steady state salt balance that allows scaling of the estuarine circulation based on external forcing factors and is independent of depth. In contrast, the observed and modeled increases in stratification are opposite of expectations from the steady state balance, which could be due to reduction in mixing with loss of shallow subtidal regions. Overall, the mean shift in estuarine parameter space due to channel deepening has been modest compared with the monthly‐to‐seasonal variability due to tides and river discharge.
    Description: Funding was provided by NSF Coastal SEES (OCE 1325136). Data supporting this study are posted to Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2551285) or are available by contacting the author.
    Description: 2019-12-07
    Keywords: Estuarine circulation ; Salinity intrusion ; Stratification ; Dredging ; Hudson River
    Repository Name: Woods Hole Open Access Server
    Type: Article
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
    PAPER (OA)
  • 10
    facet.materialart.
    Unknown
    Mechanisms of exchange flow in an estuary with a narrow, deep channel and wide, shallow shoals (2021)
    American Geophysical Union
    Details
    Publication Date: 2022-10-20
    Description: © The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Geyer, W. R., Ralston, D. K., & Chen, J. Mechanisms of exchange flow in an estuary with a narrow, deep channel and wide, shallow shoals. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 125(12), (2020): e2020JC016092, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JC016092.
    Description: Delaware Bay is a large estuary with a deep, relatively narrow channel and wide, shallow banks, providing a clear example of a “channel‐shoal” estuary. This numerical modeling study addresses the exchange flow in this channel‐shoal estuary, specifically to examine how the lateral geometry affects the strength and mechanisms of exchange flow. We find that the exchange flow is exclusively confined to the channel region during spring tides, when stratification is weak, and it broadens laterally over the shoals during the more stratified neap tides but still occupies a small fraction of the total width of the estuary. Exchange flow is relatively weak during spring tides, resulting from oscillatory shear dispersion in the channel augmented by weak Eulerian exchange flow. During neap tides, stratification and shear increase markedly, resulting in a strong Eulerian residual shear flow driven mainly by the along‐estuary density gradient, with a net exchange flow roughly 5 times that of the spring tide. During both spring and neap tides, lateral salinity gradients generated by differential advection at the edge of the channel drive a tidally oscillating cross‐channel flow, which strongly influences the stratification, along‐estuary salt balance, and momentum balance. The lateral flow also causes the phase variation in salinity that results in oscillatory shear dispersion and is an advective momentum source contributing to the residual circulation. Whereas the shoals make a negligible direct contribution to the exchange flow, they have an indirect influence due to the salinity gradients between the channel and the shoal.
    Description: The ideas in this paper were influenced by discussions with Robert Chant. Funding was provided by National Science Foundation grants OCE‐1325136, OCE‐1634490, and OCE‐1736539.
    Description: 2021-04-29
    Keywords: Estuarine circulation ; Tidal dispersion ; Lateral circulation
    Repository Name: Woods Hole Open Access Server
    Type: Article
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
    PAPER (OA)
Close ⊗
This website uses cookies and the analysis tool Matomo. More information can be found here...