Abstract
Alternating inundation and exposure of large tidal flats regions suggest that differences in thermodynamic properties of sediment and water cause an obvious heat exchange between the tidal sediment and seawater. Due to the influence of these sediment-water heat exchanges, the temperature of seawater changes dramatically in coastal areas. To understand and assess the effect of these heat exchanges on seawater temperature, a temperature rise numerical model is adopted to describe the influence of sediment-water heat exchange. The heat exchange is determined mainly by the temperature difference between the sediment and seawater. Thus, a sediment temperature model is developed to predict the temperature of tidal sediment and sediment-water heat flux under the alternating inundated or exposed condition. The surface sediment temperature, as the surface boundary condition of the model, is calculated by the heat balance at the surface, including solar radiation, atmospheric radiation, flat back radiation, latent, and sensible heat fluxes, soil heat flux, and sediment-water heat flux. The collected measured data of sediment temperature are used to verify the accuracy of the sediment temperature model. Based on this, the predicted sediment-water heat flux is provide to the temperature rise model. In the study site, the tidal flat of about 15.8 km2 is adopted in the sediment temperature model, and the simulated time is from 11 to 31 May 2017 to meet the collected climate data. The results show that a clear temperature rise water area comes out near the shore considering the heat flux. In warmer season, the maximum water temperature rise is about 2 °C in the local area, and in the envelope area of a 1 °C temperature rise can reach 2.8 km2. Certainly, the influence will be stronger after the simulated time moves into the middle of summer with stronger solar radiation.
Highlights
An intertidal flat is a very important site for many creatures spawning and breeding, growing seedlings, and feeding
Temperature is one of the most important ecological evaluation indices, there is still no valid mathematical model to calculate the near shore water temperature influenced by solar radiation, thermal discharge from power plants, both nuclear and coal, heat fluxes from intertidal flats, etc
One of the main reasons is that the heat exchange mechanism of the interface of the tidal flat is not perfect, and the other is that no mature calculation method for thermal diffusion coefficients and heat conduction coefficients in sediment of the flat exist
Summary
An intertidal flat is a very important site for many creatures spawning and breeding, growing seedlings, and feeding. More than 25% of wild birds in the world inhabit these areas, as well. It is the essential part of the coastal ecosystem and the most potential and dynamic region of human economic activity [1,2,3]. The flats are facing serious ecological problems because of the lack of enough consideration during past human developments. Temperature is one of the most important ecological evaluation indices, there is still no valid mathematical model to calculate the near shore water temperature influenced by solar radiation, thermal discharge from power plants, both nuclear and coal, heat fluxes from intertidal flats, etc. One of the main reasons is that the heat exchange mechanism of the interface of the tidal flat is not perfect, and the other is that no mature calculation method for thermal diffusion coefficients and heat conduction coefficients in sediment of the flat exist
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