The hydrodynamics of surface tidal flow exchange in saltmarshes

Abstract

Modeling studies of estuary circulation show great sensitivity to the water exchange into and out of adjacent marshes, yet there is significant uncertainty in resolving the processes governing marsh surface flow. The objective of this study is to measure the estuary channel-to-saltmarsh pressure gradient and to guide parameterization for how it affects the surface flow in the high marsh. Current meters and high-resolution pressure transducers were deployed along a transect perpendicular to the nearby Little Ogeechee River in a saltmarsh adjacent to Rose Dhu Island near Savannah, Georgia, USA. The vertical elevations of the transducers were surveyed with static GPS to yield high accuracy water surface elevation data. It is found that water level differences between the Little Ogeechee River and neighboring saltmarsh are up to 15 cm and pressure gradients are up to 0.0017 m of water surface elevation change per m of linear distance during rising and falling tides. The resulting Little-Ogeechee-River-to-saltmarsh pressure gradient substantially affects tidal velocities at all current meter locations. At the velocity measurement station located closest to the Little Ogeechee River bank, the tidal velocity is nearly perpendicular to the bank. At this location, surface flow is effectively modeled as a balance between the pressure gradient force and the drag force due to marsh vegetation and bottom stress using the Darcy–Weisbach/Lindner's equations developed for flow-through-vegetation analysis in open channel flow. The study thus provides a direct connection between the pressure gradient and surface flow velocity in the high marsh, thereby overcoming a long-standing barrier in directly relating flow-through-saltmarsh studies to flow-through-vegetation studies in the open channel flow literature.