Surface water and groundwater response to the tide in coastal wetlands: Assessment of a marsh in the outer Río de la Plata estuary, Argentina

Abstract

ABSTRACT Carol, E; Kruse, E and Tejada, M, 2013. Surface water and ground water response to the tide in coastal wetlands: Assessment of a marsh in the outer Rio de la Plata estuary, Argentina On the coast of the outer Rio de la Plata estuary (Argentina) there is a vast coastal wetland occurring in a marsh environment. The hydrodynamics of this wetland is subject to a semidiurnal microtidal regime which causes a wedge of estuary salt water to penetrate below the freshwater coming from continental discharge. This paper analyzes the hydrodynamics of surface and groundwater, and it assesses how anthropogenic changes affect the natural hydrological behavior of the coastal wetland in the southern sector of the outer Rio de la Plata estuary. Water level and temperature measurements were carried out on water from the canals flowing into the estuary and the phreatic aquifer located in the marsh. The salinity of the water column was measured at one high tide which was above and one which was below the regional grou...