Journal
CONTINENTAL SHELF RESEARCH
Volume 82, Issue -, Pages 1-8Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.csr.2014.03.016
Keywords
River plume; Sediment transport; Flocculation; The Pearl River Estuary
Categories
Funding
- National Basic Research Program of China [2013CB956502]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [41276079, 41176067, 40976053]
- Water Conservancy innovation Research Project of Guangdong province [2011370004209292]
- Younger Teacher Cultivation Project of Sun Yat-Sen University [101gpy06]
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Sediment trapping by the halocline of a river plume was investigated over a spring-neap tidal cycle in the 2010 dry season in the Pearl River Estuary. Benthic tripod observations and concurrent shipboard measurements were conducted to examine mean and turbulent flows, and sediment distributions. The field observations showed that suspended particles are apparently concentrated on the halocline of the river plume, forming a patchy high-concentration suspension with larger floc sizes. This sediment trapping occurred only on the neap tide when the estuary was highly stratified. An estimation of the gradient Richardson number indicates that stratification suppression is dominant below the halocline, whereas shear-induced instability occurs above the halocline. The turbulent kinetic energy balance demonstrates that the buoyancy flux dominates over viscous dissipation in turbulence destruction. Therefore, the trapping of suspended sediment with large floc sizes on the halocline is induced by both salinity stratification and buoyancy-induced instability. This finding can explain the role of salinity stratification in the mechanism for estuarine turbidity maxima and long-distance transportation of suspended sediment. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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