Abstract
Representative patterns of surface sediment plumes in coastal waters of the Santa Barbara Channel are described based on analysis of a time-series of remote sensing data (1972–present) for winter conditions. The first-order terrestrial influence on the patterns is that the largest plumes are generated from the largest watersheds during and following significant (>3 cm precipitation) winter storms. For example, coastal sediment plumes generated from the three largest watersheds, the Santa Ynez, Ventura and Santa Clara river watersheds, are always the largest surface plume features in the winter coastal waters. The largest plume observed in the remote sensing data was generated from the combined outflow of the Ventura and Santa Clara rivers in February 1983, following approximately 25 cm of rain in the previous month, and averaged 10 km long and 25 m wide. A second-order effect on the spatial patterns of the coastal plumes is the position of watershed outlets with respect to coastal geography as shown by a comparison of, (i) the watershed morphometry, (ii) the accumulated runoff, (iii) the cell-based erosion potential, and (iv) the near-shore bathymetry for two of the Northern Channel Islands, Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz. In particular, Santa Rosa Island is surrounded by shallow coastal waters which may experience resuspension of sediment throughout the year. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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