Publication Date:
2017-04-04
Description:
The aim of the present study is to understand and assess the eutrophic state of the Buna-Bojana river delta coastal strip, in the southeastern Adriatic Sea, and contrast it with the northern Po river dominated shelf area. We present and compare observations of chemical and physical state variables from the two areas of the Adriatic Sea and we also use a numerical model output to depict the circulation structures of the two areas. The area affected by the Po River discharge extends at least one hundred kilometres southward of the delta and approximately twenty kilometres offshore. Maximum chlorophyll concentrations follow closely the river waters. Similarly to the northern Adriatic Sea, the Buna/Bojana river discharge extends northward along the coasts for one hundred kilometres and shows large maxima in chlorophyll. The two coastal areas have opposite dominant dynamical processes: while the Po river affected area is a downwelling region, the Buna/Bojana is characterized by upwelling favourable winds. However, during the period of study, upwelling is not a dominant feature of the circulation and both the shelf slope current and the along shore currents in the southeastern Adriatic Sea are northward, the along shore current probably dominated by the river runoff. Under these conditions, primary productivity is high in both areas which allows us to conclude that river plume dynamics with the associated nutrient inputs control the eutrophication state of the coastal strip, regardless of the general hydrodynamics regime of the southeastern Adriatic Sea area
Description:
Submitted
Description:
1.8. Osservazioni di geofisica ambientale
Description:
JCR Journal
Description:
open
Keywords:
Po river
;
Buna- Bojana river delta coastal strip
;
03. Hydrosphere::03.04. Chemical and biological::03.04.01. Biogeochemical cycles
Repository Name:
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
Type:
manuscript
Permalink
