Abstract
Abstract. This study focuses on the impact of discharges of small rivers on the delivery and fate of fluvial water and suspended matter at the northeastern part of the Black Sea under different local precipitation conditions. Several dozens of mountainous rivers flow into the sea at the study region, and most of them, except for several of the largest, have little annual runoff and affect adjacent coastal waters to a limited extent under average climatic conditions. However, the discharges of these small rivers are characterized by a quick response to precipitation events and can significantly increase during and shortly after heavy rains, which are frequent in the considered area. The delivery and fate of fluvial water and terrigenous sediments at the study region, under average climatic and rain-induced flooding conditions, were explored and compared using in situ data, satellite imagery, and numerical modeling. It was shown that the point-source spread of continental discharge dominated by several large rivers under average climatic conditions can change to the line-source discharge from numerous small rivers situated along the coast in response to heavy rains. The intense line-source runoff of water and suspended sediments forms a geostrophic alongshore current of turbid and freshened water, which induces the intense transport of suspended and dissolved constituents discharged with river waters in a northwestern direction. This process significantly influences water quality and causes active sediment load at large segments of the narrow shelf at the northeastern part of the Black Sea compared to average climatic discharge conditions.
Highlights
Continental discharge is one of the main sources of terrigenous sediments, nutrients, and anthropogenic pollution in the sea and can significantly affect seabed morphology, water quality, primary productivity, and fishery in coastal areas (e.g., Emmet, 2006; Milliman et al, 2007; Zhou et al, 2008; Rabalais, 2010)
Based on in situ data, satellite imagery, and numerical modeling, we reconstructed the daily volumes of fluvial water and terrigenous sediments discharged during the trial periods from the 20 largest rivers of the study region
Figuration of coupled Eulerian (Princeton Ocean Model) and Lagrangian (STRiPE) models was recently used for simulation of the delivery and fate of fluvial water and terrigenous sediments discharged by the Peinan River at the southeastern coast of the island of Taiwan under freshet and typhoon discharge conditions (Osadchiev et al, 2016) and for studying the dynamical features of the Zhuoshui and Wu river plumes located on the western coast of Taiwan (Korotenko et al, 2014)
Summary
Continental discharge is one of the main sources of terrigenous sediments, nutrients, and anthropogenic pollution in the sea and can significantly affect seabed morphology, water quality, primary productivity, and fishery in coastal areas (e.g., Emmet, 2006; Milliman et al, 2007; Zhou et al, 2008; Rabalais, 2010). Based on in situ data, satellite imagery, and numerical modeling, we reconstructed the daily volumes of fluvial water and terrigenous sediments discharged during the trial periods from the 20 largest rivers of the study region. To do this we used a recently developed method described in Osadchiev (2015).
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