ADV-based estimates of sediment settling velocity on the shelf of the Yellow and East China seas: evidence of marked seasonal and intra-tidal variations

Abstract

Sediment settling velocity (w s) patterns are well established at the Huanghe and Changjiang river mouths, but no w s results have been reported for the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea (YSECS) shelves due to the labor-intensive and time-consuming aspect of traditional w s measurement approaches (e.g., settling column method). This disadvantage can be overcome by the acoustic Doppler velocimeter (ADV). In this study, ten ADV-based field campaigns were conducted over various seasons of the years 2011 and 2013 at six YSECS sites, five on the East China Sea shelf (28 to 87 m depth) and one on the Yellow Sea shelf (74 m depth). The results demonstrate that ADV backscatter was a reliable proxy of suspended sediment concentration over a measurement range of 1 to 1,000 mg/L. The ADV-estimated w s was highest (1.43–1.88 mm/s) in summer in the southern East China Sea, and lowest (0.07 mm/s) in spring in the northern Yellow Sea. This can plausibly be explained by the hydrodynamic environment and bottom sediment type at the campaign sites. More importantly, the data reveal evidence of marked seasonal variations of w s in the middle sector of the East China Sea, as well as intra-tidal variations at all campaign sites. However, these variations of w s are not directly regulated by current velocity or suspended sediment concentration. This aspect represents a major challenge in future research in this shelf region and, for that matter, in similar settings worldwide. Evidently, expanding on the well-resolved continuous time series provided by the ADV approach is a key step in this direction.