Inertial oscillations and particle flux interactions in a marine protected area in Gulf of Naples

Abstract

The area between the island of Capri and Punta Campanella was investigated from June to November 2003. Punta Campanella separates the Gulf of Naples from the Gulf of Salerno and has been declared a marine protected area in 1997. The study area has a particular interesting topography, due to the presence of a sill situated at a depth of 80 m. Samples were collected by instruments carried on a mooring array (sediment trap, current meters, and temperature sensors) and by CTD cast (along transects perpendicular to the coast). We observed most important fluctuations in the temperature spectra (corresponding to the inertial oscillations period), in August. The total mass flux was 585.67 mg m−2 d−1 in the summer, while in early autumn the flux exhibited values one order of magnitude higher than in summer (1539.97 mg m−2 d−1). The main focus of this study was to understand the influence of the internal waves on the particle flux. During the autumn, in the particle flux collected, there is a strong resuspension component, and the observation that the enhanced inertial oscillations and increased sedimentation occur at the same time allows us to presume that the inertial oscillations could be one of the reasons for the resuspension process during the sampling period.