Abstract
Widely used conductivity-based salinity measurements may be affected by suspended sediments. Two sets of experiments were carried out to analyze the effects of sediment concentration and grain size on salinity measurements. The results show that the salinities measured by conductivity-temperature-depth probes in turbid saltwater are all lower than those measured in clear water. The absolute values of the difference in salinity between turbid saltwater and clear saltwater increase with increasing reference salinity and suspended sediment concentration (SSC). Moreover, the finer the sediment particles are, generally, the greater is their influence upon salinity measurement. For an SSC of 70 g/L and a reference salinity of 30 g/kg, the absolute values of salinity difference were 1.882, 1.675, and 1.285 PSU for the fine, median, and coarse sediment particles, respectively. These differences are attributed to blocking, occupying, adsorption, and flocculation effects.
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