Seasonal Hydrodynamics and Salt Exchange of a Shallow Estuary in Northern China

Abstract

ABSTRACT Zou, T.; Zhang, H.; Meng, Q. J., and Li, J., 2016. Seasonal hydrodynamics and salt exchange of a shallow estuary in Northern China. Estuaries are important components of coastal ecosystem and function as dominant pathways of material exchange at the land-sea interface. The transport of terrestrial input through river inflow is controlled by physical process including tides, waves, and fresh water discharge. This study investigates hydrodynamic characteristic and salt flux within Xiaoqinghe River (XQR) estuary, which is a shallow estuarine system (water depth < 8 m) and exports substantial amount of nutrients and pollutants to the adjacent Laizhou Bay. Profile velocity and salinity are measured using ADCP and CTD through complete tidal cycles (25 hours) in April, July and September 2013. The instantaneous velocity and salinity data are decomposed into time-averaged means and time-varying components based on the improved Kjerfve (1986) method to quantify the contributions of various physical proces...