Development of a High-Resolution Coastal Circulation Model for the Ocean Observatory in Lunenburg Bay

An advanced ocean observatory has been established in Lunenburg Bay of Nova Scotia, Canada as part of an interdisciplinary research project of marine environmental prediction. The development of a high-resolution coastal circulation model is one of important components of the observatory. The model horizontal resolution is 60m and the vertical resolution is about 1 m. The coastal circulation model is used to simulate the semi-diurnal tidal circulation and associated nonlinear dynamics with the M2 forcing specified at the model open boundaries. The model is also used to simulate the storm-induced circulation in the bay during Hurricane Juan in September 2003, with the model forcing to be the combination of tides and remotely generated waves specified at the model open boundaries and wind stress applied at the sea surface. The model results demonstrate strong interactions between the local wind stress, tidal forcing, and remotely generated waves during this period. Comparison of model results with the surface elevation and current observations demonstrates that the coastal circulation model has reasonable skills in simulating the tidal and storm-induced circulation in the bay.     

Analysis and Prediction of Influence Imposed on Jiaozhou Bay Tidal Currents and Tidal Energy of M_2 Tidal System by Jiaozhou Bay Reclamation

The 3-D ECOMSED ocean model was applied to establish a time-dependent boundary model for Jiaozhou Bay (JZB), in which the operator-splitting technique was used and the ‘dry and wet’ method was introduced. The influence caused by JZB reclamation on the surface level, residual currents, tidal system and tidal energy of M2 tidal system were predicted and analyzed. The results show that JZB reclamation has slight impact on the M2 tidal system, in which the variation of amplitude and phase is less than 1%.The ch...     

The Impact of Large-Scale Reclamation on Hydro-Dynamic Environment——A Case Study of Xinghua Bay

A hydro-dynamic model is established on basis of MIKE21 FM to simulate the hydro-dynamic characteristics of Xinghua Bay and investigate the influence of reclamation project on the tidal elevation and tidal currents. Tidal elevation data was obtained at the six tide gauge stations around the Xinghua Bay, and another six current stations were established to observe the tidal current velocity and direction. Validation shows that the model-simulated tidal elevation and tidal currents agree well with observations made at different stations. Predictions are made according to the reclamation project proposed in the regional marine planning of Hanjiang Industrial Park around the port in Putian City. The variations of hydro-dynamic factors, such as tide, current velocity and direction and tidal influx are obtained, and the adverse effect of reclamation on marine environment is discussed. It is shown that the tidal level inside the Xinghua Bay during high tide decreases after the reclamation project is completed. The tidal currents during flooding tide generally decrease in the southeast of the reclamation region, with the maximum decreasing amplitude reaching 0.44 m s^-1. On the other hand, the tidal currents during flooding tide increase around the southeast and southwest corners of the reclamation region. The tidal currents during ebb tide increase around the southeast and southwest corners of the reclamation region, with the maximum increasing amplitude attaining 0.18 m s^-1. The results in this paper can give some guidance for the marine environment management and the effective utilization of land in Putian.     

Heterogeneous tide-surge interaction during co-occurrence of tropical and extratropical cyclones in the radial sand ridges of the southern Yellow Sea

The Radial Sand Ridges(RSRs) area in the southern Yellow Sea are subject to tropical and extratropical cyclone activities frequently, in which the special geometry feature and moving stationary tidal system result in complex storm-induced hydrodynamic processes, especially the tide-surge interactions. We studied a rare weather event influenced simultaneously by an extratropical cyclone EX1410 and Typhoon Vongfong as an example to investigate the characteristics of storm surges, wave-surge, and tide-surge interaction in the RSRs area, and applied a high-resolution integrally-coupled ADCIRC+SWAN model, in which the meteorological forcing inputs are simulated by the WRF-ARW model. The model is validated by records from 4 tide gauges and 2 wave buoys along the Yellow Sea coast. Results show that the tide-surge interactions are of considerable regional heterogeneousness. The surge curves at Lüsi(in south RSRs) and Jianggang(in middle RSRs) have abrupt falls near the time of low tide, where the peak occurrence time of interaction residuals tend to shift towards the mid-ebb period. Significant increase of bed shear stress in shallow waters was proved the dominant factor to affect the tide-surge interaction in broad tidal flats of the RSRs area. Differently, the interaction pattern in the Xiyang Trough(in north RSRs), showed a unique rising in mid-flood period due to the phase advances of real surge waves in relatively deep waters. Therefore, we suggested to the local flood risk management that the tide-surge interaction tends to alleviate the flooding risk in the RSRs area around the time of high tide, but aggravate the risk on the rising tide in the Xiyang Trough and on the falling tide in large-scale tidal flats of the southern RSRs area.     

The observed currents in summer in the Bohai Sea

A harmonic method was used to analyze the tidal currents observed in summer at 11 stations made from 1996 to 2001 in the Bohai Sea, China. Data was compared among different instruments and intervals. Elliptic elements were calculated based on harmonic constants, of which vertical distributions of the maximum speed and rotation direction were discussed for understanding the characteristics of diurnal and semi-diurnal tidal current components. The results indicate that the maximum speed of M2 tidal current component is much larger than that of K1; the rotation direction of M2 tidal current constituent is clockwise in the central part of the Bohai Sea and in the Laizhou Bay, but anticlockwise in the Liaodong Bay and Bohai Bay. For K1 tidal current constituent, it is clockwise in the central Bohai Sea but anti-clockwise in the Laizhou Bay and Liaodong Bay. The tidal currents in most stations in the Bohai Sea were regular semidiurnal except for those in the central Bohai Sea, being irregular semidiurnal.     

MODELLING THE HYDRODYNAMICS OF THE BOHAI SEA IN CHINA

The effects of tides, wind and river discharges on the flow patterns in Bohai Sea are investigated. The Finite Element Method is used to cast the vertically integrated, long wave equations into a system of nonlinear ordinary equations in time. For simplicity we adopted linear triangular elements which are easily integrated exactly and lead to matrices of relatively small bandwidth. The system of ordinary differential equations is solved using a simple finite difference scheme.Because of the small contribution from three partial tides S2, K1 and O1, we take only the M2 tide into account. In this study the computations show Liaodong Bay in the north to be the locale of both the maximum flood and ebb strengths; tidal currents in Laizhou Bay in the south are of less importance in the tidal circulation of Bohai Sea. The discharges of four major rivers and wind speed of 7.0 m/s blowing from the north are used for examining the change in the M2 tidal current field. The simulations show that the influence of wi     

The Sources and Transport Patterns of Modern Sediments in Hangzhou Bay: Evidence from Clay Minerals

Clay mineral compositions of 199 offshore surface sediment samples collected from the Hangzhou Bay have been analyzed. The clay minerals in the sediments from the Hangzhou Bay are dominated by illite(58.7%, on average), followed by chlorite(20.3%), kaolinite(16.9%) and smectite(4.1%). Two provinces were classified by Q-mode cluster analysis. Class Ⅰ with relatively low amounts of illite and smectite is widely distributed in the Hangzhou Bay, especially concentrated in the top and mouth of the bay, and the northern and southern nearshore areas. Class Ⅱ with comparatively high amounts of illite and smectite is mainly concentrated in the central part of the bay with the water depth of 8–10 m. By comparing clay mineral compositions with the neighbouring regions, we can find that the sediments in the Hangzhou Bay are mainly influenced by the resuspension and repeated deposition of particles from the Yangtze River due to the strong dynamic environment. In particular, the clay fraction of Class Ⅰ is mainly supplied by the Yangtze River, while the sediments of Class Ⅱ are mixture of the clay minerals carried by the Yangtze River and Qiantang River. In general, the distributions of clay minerals in the northern bay are affected by Yangtze River runoff, coastal current and flood tide together, and in the southern they are mainly affected by the Qiantang River runoff and ebb tide.     

Numerical study on inter-tidal transports in coastal seas

Inter-tidal(subtidal) transport processes in coastal sea depend on the residual motion, turbulent dispersion and relevant sources/sinks. In Feng et al.(2008), an updated Lagrangian inter-tidal transport equation, as well as new concept of Lagrangian in- ter-tidal concentration(LIC), has been proposed for a general nonlinear shallow water system. In the present study, the LIC is nu- merically applied for the first time to passive tracers in idealized settings and salinity in the Bohai Sea, China. Circulation and tracer motion in the three idealized model seas with different topography or coastline, termed as ‘flat-bottom', ‘stairs' and ‘cape' case, re- spectively, are simulated. The dependence of the LIC on initial tidal phase suggests that the nonlinearities in the stairs and cape cases are stronger than that in the flat-bottom case. Therefore, the ‘flat-bottom' case still meets the convectively weakly nonlinear condi- tion. For the Bohai Sea, the simulation results show that most parts of it still meet the weakly nonlinear condition. However, the de- pendence of the LIS(Lagrangian inter-tidal salinity) on initial tidal phase is significant around the southern headland of the Liaodong Peninsula and near the mouth of the Yellow River. The nonlinearity in the former region is mainly related to the complicated coast- lines, and that in the latter region is due to the presence of the estuarine salinity front.     

Numerical study on effect of tidal phase on storm surge in the South Yellow Sea

Because of the special topography and large tidal range in the South Yellow Sea, the dynamic process of tide and storm surge is very complicated. The shallow water circulation model Advanced Circulation(ADCIRC) was used to simulate the storm surge process during typhoon Winnie, Prapiroon, and Damrey, which represents three types of tracks attacking the South Yellow Sea, which are, moving northward after landing, no landing but active in offshore areas, and landing straightly to the coastline. Numerical experiments were carried out to investigate the effects of tidal phase on the tide-surge interaction as well as storm surge. The results show that the peak surge caused by Winnie and Prapiroon occurs 2–6 h before the high tide and its occurring time relative to high tide has little change with tidal phase variations. On the contrary, under the action of Damrey, the occurring time of the peak surge relative to high tide varies with tidal phase. The variation of tide-surge interaction is about 0.06–0.37 m, and the amplitude variations of interaction are smooth when tidal phase changes for Typhoon Winnie and Prapiroon. While the interaction is about 0.07–0.69 m, and great differences exists among the stations for Typhoon Damrey. It can be concluded that the tide-surge interaction of the former is dominated by the tidal phase modulation, and the time of surge peak is insensitive to the tidal phase variation. While the interaction of the latter is dominated by storm surge modulation due to the water depth varying with tide, the time of surge peak is significantly affected by tidal phase. Therefore, influence of tidal phase on storm surge is related to typhoon tracks which may provide very useful information at the design stage of coastal protection systems.     

Biogeochemical characteristics of nitrogen and phosphorus in Jiaozhou Bay sediments

Sediment samples were cored from 3 locations representing the inner bay, the outer bay and the bay mouth of Jiaozhou Bay in September 2003 to study the source and biogeochemical characteristics of nitrogen and phosphorus in the bay. The content and vertical distributions of total nitrogen （TN）, total phosphorus （TP）, organic nitrogen （ON）, organic phosphorus （OP）, inorganic nitrogen （IN）, inorganic phosphorus （IP）, the ratio of organic carbon and total nitrogen （OC/TN）, and the ratio of total nitrogen and total phosphorus （TN/TP） in the sediments were analyzed. The results show that both TN and TP in surface sediments decrease from the inner bay to the outer bay. In general, ON occupies 50%-70% of TN and IP accounts for more than 60% of TP. In ratio of OC：TN, the nitrogen accumulated in the sediments from the inner bay and the bay mouth came mainly from terrestrial sources, and the portion of autogenetic nitrogen was 28.9% and 13.1%, respectively. However, in the outer bay, nitrogen was mainly autogenetic, accounting for 62.1% of TN, whereas phosphorus was mainly land-derived. The sedimentation fluxes of nitrogen and phosphorus varied spatially. The overall diagenesis rate of nitrogen was higher than that of phosphorus. Specifically, the diagenesis rate of OP was higher than that of IP. However, the diagenesis rate of ON was not always higher than that of IN. In species, the diagenesis rate of IN is sometimes much higher than that of the OC. In various environments, the diagenesis rate is, to some degree, affected by OC, pH, Eh, and Es.     

NUMERICAL STUDY ON THE TIDAL FRONT IN THE WESTERN YELLOW SEA

The formation and evolution of the tidal front in the western Yellow Sea are studied by means of a two-dimensional model in which wind and tide mixing, sun radiation and wind stress, and realistic topography are incorporated. In this numerical study, the schemes employed are stable for time step t= 900 s, so the model can be run for 4 months to simulate the front evolution. The authors examined the effects of mixing and atmospheric forcing on the tidal front under conditions of : mixing and solar heating without wind stress on the sea surface; mixing, solar heating and 50 hours of wind stress; mixing, solar heating and long time periodical wind stress, Results show that (1) the tidal front forms at the beginning of May, and strengthens with the increasing of heat input, (2) the temperature structure in the shallow well-mixed water is dominated by mixing, while in the front and deeper stratified regions, it is controlled by the joint effects of (mainly) mixing and advection, 0) the currents and front all     

A THREE-DIMENSIONAL WEAKLY NONLINEAR DYNAMICS ON TIDE-INDUCED LAGRANGIAN RESIDUAL CURRENT AND MASS-TRANSPORT

In recent years, studies of the environmental hydrodynamics in coastal seas and tidal estuaries have placed focus on the processes which determine the "fate" of longer-term transport. The lagrangian residual current has been recognized as an important factor which affects the longer term transport processes since it is more relevant to use a Lagrangian mean velocity rather than an Eulerian mean velocity to determine the origin of Water masses. In the present paper, an attempt is made to formulate a three-dimensional dynamics on the tide induced Lagrangian residual current and mass-transport based upon a three-dimensional weakly-nonlinear model of tides. The Lagrangian residual velocity is shown to be the sum of the mass-transport velocity, which is the sum of the Eulerian residual velocity and the Stokes' drift velocity, and the Lagrangian residual drift velocity which is dependent on the tidal current phase. This reveals that it is the mass-transport velocity which is the tidal cycle Eulerian mean of t     

Nutrient and chlorophyll a anomaly in red-tide periods of 2003-2008 in Sishili Bay, China

Sishili Bay is the most important aquiculture and tourism area for the city of Yantai, China; however, red tides occurred frequently and have caused huge economic losses in this bay in recent years. To gain a better understanding of the local ecological environments in the bay, we conducted this research between 2003 and 2008 to analyze variations in nutrients and chlorophyll (chl-a) during high frequency red tide period (May to September). The results show that the chl-a concentration increased from 2.70 in 2003 to 7.26 mg/m3 in 2008, while the concentration of total inorganic nitrogen (TIN) and silicate (SiO3-Si) increased lineally from 5.18 and 1.45 μmol/L in 2003 to 18.57 and 9.52 μmol/L in 2008, respectively, and the annual phosphate (PO4-P) varied between 0.15 and 0.46 μmol/L. Special attention was given to a red tide in August 2007 occurred when water temperature was high and nutrient concentrations increased sharply because of a heavy rainfall. Overall, the results show the P limitation in Sishili Bay, and reveal that red tides were caused by eutrophication from terrestrial inputs and local warm weather, particularly during rainy periods. Therefore, to control red tide, greater efforts should be made to reduce sewage discharges into Sishili Bay, particularly during rainfall seasons.     

A Model Study on Dynamical Processes of Phytoplankton inLaizhou Bay

A three-dimensional ecosystem model, using a PIC （Particle-In-Cell） method, is developed to reproduce the annual cycleand seasonal variation of nutrients and phytoplankton biomass in Laizhou Bay. Eight state variables, i.e., DIN （dissolved inorganicnitrogen）, phosphate, DON （dissolved organic nitrogen）, DOP （dissolved organic phosphorus）, COD （chemical oxygen demand）,chlorophyll-a （Chl-a）, detritus and the zooplankton biomass, are included in the model. The model successfully reproduces the ob-served temporal and spatial variations of nutrients and Chl-a biomass distributions in the bay. The nutrient concentrations are at highlevel in winter and at low level in summer. Double-peak structure of the phytoplankton （PPT） biomass exists in Laizhou Bay, corre-sponding to a spring and an autumn bloom respectively. Several numerical experiments are carried out to examine the nutrient limita-tion, and the importance of the discharges of the Yellow River and Xiaoqinghe River. Both DIN limitation and phosphate limitationexist in some areas of the bay, with the former being more significant than the latter. The Yellow River and Xiaoqinghe River are themain pollution sources of nutrients in Laizhou Bay. During the flood season, the algal growth is inhibited in the bay with the YellowRiver discharges being excluded in the experiment, while in spring, the algal growth is enhanced with the Xiaoqinghe River ex-cluded.     

A TWO-DIMENSIONAL NUMERICAL MODEL OF THE TIDAL MOTIONS IN THE BOHAI SEA

The motions of diurnal, semidiurnal, and shallow-water tides and tidal currents in the Bohai Sea are computed using a finite-difference method based on two-dimensional tidal wave equations. Good agreement of the computed results with the observed data is achieved for diurnal and semidiurnal tides. The general pattern of the computed quarterdiurnal tide conforms to the observed pattern, but the computed amplitudes are on the high side. This is attributed to the ineligibility of the friction terms in the two-dimensional governing equations to dissipate the energy of high frequency tidal waves. It is found that the existing semidiurnal cotidal charts have considerable differences in Laizhou Bay. The difference is likely caused by the movement of the coastline of the Yellow River Delta. The present result coincides with the recent empirical cotidal chart. The computation shows a new current-amphidromic point for both semidiurnal and diurnal tidal currents. The diurnal current has two current-amphidromic poi     

Estimation of extreme marine hydrodynamic variables in western Laizhou Bay

Laizhou Bay and its adjacent waters are of great importance to China's marine oil and gas development. It is therefore crucial to estimate return-period values of marine environmental variables in this region to ensure the safety and success of maritime engineering and maritime exploration. In this study, we used numerical simulations to estimate extreme wave height, sea current velocity and sea-level height in western Laizhou Bay. The results show that the sea-level rise starts at the mouth of the bay, increases toward west/southwest, and reaches its maximum in the deepest basin of the bay. The 100-year return-period values of sea level rise can reach 3.4–4.0 m in the western bay. The elevation of the western part of the Qingdong Oil Field would remain above the sea surface during extreme low sea level, while the rest of the oil field would be 1.6–2.4 m below the sea surface. The return-period value of wave height is strongly affected by water depth; in fact, its spatial distribution is similar to the isobath's. The 100-year return-period values of effective wave height can be 6 m or higher in the central bay and be more than 1 m in the shallow water near shore. The 100-year return-period values of current velocity is about 1.2–1.8 m s-1 in the Qingdong Oil Field. These results provide scientific basis for ensuring construction safety and reducing construction cost.     

Species Composition and Diversity of Macrobenthos in the Intertidal Zone of Xiangshan Bay,China

Xiangshan bay is a narrow semi-closed bay and situated on the northwestern coast of the East China Sea. Over past decades, it has become to a major bay with intensive human activities, dense urbanized area, and poor water quality. The aim of this paper was to reveal the ecological status through the elucidation of the species composition, abundance, biomass and diversity of macrobenthos in this bay. Six intertidal sections were surveyed from January 2007 to November 2008 quarterly. Sections TG, HD and XH are located in the three inner bays, sections QJ and WS are located near the thermal power plants, and section XX is located at the outer part of Xiangshan Bay. Great variations in macrobenthos community were indentified, and the species composition of the community in the present study showed the dominance in the order of molluscs(bivalves and gastropods), crustaceans and others, and only few Polychaeta were recorded. Only three dominant species, Littorina brevicula, Ilyplax tansuiensis, and Cerithidea cingulata were collected in all the sections, and a total of 19 dominant species were recorded only in one section. Two-way ANOVA analyses of abundance indicated that there were significant differences among sections or seasons. Shannon-Wiener diversity index(H’) had its maximum(2.45) in section QJ, and minimum(1.76) in section TG. Multiple irregular k-dominance plots clearly showed that the study area was polluted and the macrobenthos community was under stress. We conclude that the macrobenthos of Xiangshan Bay have been disturbed by human activities, especially at the interior bay.     

The marine dynamics and changing trend off the modern Yellow River mouth

Topography around the Yellow River mouth has changed greatly in recent years, but studies on the current state of ma- rine dynamics off the Yellow River mouth are relatively scarce. This paper uses a two-dimension numerical model(MIKE 21) to reveal the tidal and wave dynamics in 2012, and conducts comparative analysis of the changes from 1996 to 2012. The results show that M2 amphidromic point moved southeastward by 11 km. It further reveals that the tides around the Yellow River mouth are relatively stable due to the small variations in the tidal constituents. Over the study period, there is no noticeable change in the distribution of tidal types and tidal range, and the mean tidal range off the river mouth during the period studied is 0.5–1.1 m. However, the tidal currents changed greatly due to large change in topography. It is observed that the area with strong tidal currents shifted from the old river mouth(1976–1996) to the modern river mouth(1996–present). While the tidal current speeds decreased continually off the old river mouth, they increased off the modern river mouth. The Maximum Tidal Current Speed(MTCS) reached 1.4 m s-1, and the maximum current speed of 50-year return period reached 2.8 m s-1. Waves also changed greatly due to change in topography. The significant wave height(H1/3) of 50-year return period changed proportionately with the water depth, and the ratio of H1/3 to depth being 0.4–0.6. H1/3 of the 50-year return period in erosion zone increased continually with increasing water depth, and the rate of change varied between 0.06 and 0.07 m yr-1. Based on the results of this study, we infer that in the future, the modern river mouth will protrude gradually northward, while the erosion zone, comprising the old river mouth and area between the modern river mouth and the old river mouth(Intermediate region) will continue to erode. As the modern river mouth protrudes towards the sea, there will be a gradual increase in the current speed and decrease in wave height. Conversely, the old river mouth will retreat, with gradual decrease in current speed and increase in wave height. As more coastal constructions spring up around the Yellow River mouth in the future, we recommend that variation in hydrodynamics over time should be taken into consideration when designing such coastal constructions.     

ON THE VERTICAL STRUCTURE OF TIDAL CURRENTS IN SHALLOWWATER NEAR THE CHANGJIANG RIVER ESTUARY

This research on the vertical structure of tidal current in shallow water near the Changjiang River estuary is based on a great deal of observation data of current obtained recently, and a simple mathematic model. The essential features of the structure are: (1) the maximum velocity decreases with depth, the shallower the water, the lower the velocity; (2) the orientation of maximum velocity continuously deviates from the surface to the bottom to the left at the western side of the mouth bar and to the right at the eastern side; (3) the time of maximum velocity leads steadily with depth; (4) in general, tidal currents rotate clockwise, the nearer the sea-bed, the narrower the ellipse of the tidal current; (5) the ratio W1/W2 varies non-linearly with depth, and is smaller in the middle layer than at the surface and bottom. Bottom friction is the main cause of the vertical structure.     

Impact of seasonal tide variation on saltwater intrusion in the Changjiang River estuary

An improved 3-D ECOM-si model was used to study the impact of seasonal tide variation on saltwater intrusion into the Changjiang River estuary, especially at the bifurcation of the North Branch (NB) and the South Branch (SB). The study assumes that the river discharge and wind are constant. The model successfully reproduced the saltwater intrusion. During spring tide, there is water and salt spillover (WSO and SSO) from the NB into the SB, and tidally averaged (net) water and salt fluxes are 985 m3/s and 24.8 ton/s, respectively. During neap tide, the WSO disappears and its net water flux is 122 m3/s. Meanwhile, the SSO continues, with net salt flux of 1.01 ton/s, much smaller than during spring tide. Because the tidal range during spring tide is smaller in June than in March, overall saltwater intrusion is weaker in June than in March during that tidal period. However, the WSO and SSO still exist in June. Net water and salt fluxes in that month are 622 m3/s and 15.35 ton/s, respectively, decreasing by 363 m3/s and 9.45 ton/s over those in March. Because tidal range during neap tide is greater in June than in March, saltwater intrusion in June is stronger than in March during that tidal period. The WSO and SSO appear in June, with net water and salt fluxes of 280 m3/s and 8.55 ton/s, respectively, increasing by 402 m3/s and 7.54 ton/s over those in March. Saltwater intrusion in the estuary is controlled by the river discharge, semi-diurnal flood-ebb tide, semi-monthly spring or neap tide, and seasonal tide variation.