Estuarine salt conservation: a Lagrangian approach

Understanding tidal and mean flow transport mechanisms that maintain the estuarine salt balance against seaward transport by river flow is one of the fundamental questions of estuarine oceanography. Previous salt transport studies have failed to resolve this problem for two principal methodological reasons, in addition to the inherent variability of estuaries. First, salt transport expansions used to represent the salt balance have included a large number of terms that could not be related to any theory of estuarine circulation and whose physical meaning was thus unclear. Second, it has proven difficult to measure small mean velocities in the presence of much larger tidal variations. A new analysis method that expresses Lagrangian scalar property transport in terms of time and space variations of Eulerian variables is much simpler than expansions previously used and yields new insights into estuarine transport processes. This approach (like previous expansions) is valid for narrow systems in which cross-channel transport processes are weak and the ratio of tidal amplitude to mean depth is small. A surface boundary condition is used to eliminate one class of troublesome terms. The equivalence of the tidal-cycle average transport of tidal variations in salinity and the Stokes transport of mean salinity is then employed to show that the vertically integrated tidal flow plays no role in the overall salt balance. That is, seaward transport of salt caused by the river flow can only be balanced by landward transport resulting from correlations between shear and stratification in the mean, tidal and overtide flows. In a hypothetical inviscid estuary, tide and overtide flows would be vertically uniform, and outward fluvial salt transport could only be balanced by shear and stratification in the mean gravitational circulation. In a more realistic example with strong friction, the gravitational circulation would be severely damped, and inward transport could only be accomplished by correlations of shear and stratification in the tide and overtide flows.     

江苏盐城自然保护区核心区环境动态的遥感分析

根据江苏盐城自然保护区核心区两个时相陆地卫星影像资料的分析和对比,研究了 10 a 内核心区的植被演替、人工开发及潮沟系统演化,探讨自然及人为因素对整个原生湿地生态系统的影响.分析结果表明,互花米草滩的面积 10 a 间扩展了 10 倍以上,而作为珍禽的主要栖息地的盐蒿滩、草滩和芦苇滩的面积 10 a 内均有所下降,其中草滩面积的下降尤为明显.10 a 间芦苇田和水禽湖这两种人工湿地的面积增长显著.潮沟系统呈减少和萎缩趋势,在一定程度上是海岸开发活动和互花米草盐沼扩展的结果.保护区核心区的原生生态系统已有退化迹象,珍禽的原生栖息地的面积有所下降,因此建议保护区将工作重点放在保护和重建原生湿地上.     

Allochthonous salt, structure and stratigraphy of the north-eastern Gulf of Mexico. Part I: Stratigraphy

Major sequence boundaries associated with eustatic sea level changes are correlated to the general stratigraphy of the north-eastern Gulf of Mexico. The details of a Middle Cretaceous Flooding Surface, marking a major break in sedimentation, are documented. The sequence stratigraphic work provides an example of the ‘stratigraphic signature of the Neogene’. Three major episodes of sediment accumulation are represented by: (1) Late Jurassic (150.5 Ma) to Middle Cretaceous (94 Ma) aggradation and progradation of sediments with significant sediment accumulation in the present shelf and slope areas; (2) an extended period of starved sedimentation during 94-30 Ma corresponding to Middle Cretaceous flooding events (93.5 and 91.5 Ma) and the lack of sediment supply; and (3) since Late Oligocene time, unusually rapid sedimentation rates that characterize the deep water study area. These patterns of sediment accumulation directly affect the formation of allochthonous salt in the study area.     

The effect of standing biomass on flow velocity and turbulence in Spartina alterniflora canopies

Plant-flow interactions on the surface of tidal wetlands result in flow characteristics that are profoundly different from non-vegetated flows. Reductions in mean flow velocity and turbulence, especially the vertical components, limit vertical mixing and may impact a wide range of processes including geochemical exchanges at the sediment water interface, larval recruitment and dispersion, and sediment deposition and retention. The goal of this paper is to quantify horizontal and vertical components of velocity, turbulence intensity and total turbulent kinetic energy in Spartina alterniflora canopies in southeastern North Carolina and to relate flow characteristics to particulate transport on the marsh surface. Another aim of this paper is to assess the extent to which the distribution of standing biomass affects mean flow and turbulence by comparing S. alterniflora data to other canopy types and through a series of canopy manipulations which altered canopy height and stem densities.The results of this study indicate that flow velocity, turbulence intensity, and total turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) are significantly reduced within the vegetated canopy and that this reduction is inversely related to the amount of biomass present in the water column. Within the canopy, approximately 50% of the initial mean velocity and TKE is reduced within 5 m of the canopy edge. Within the canopy, mean velocity and TKE_horiz usually exceeded vertical velocity or TKE_vert and the vertical components of flow were attenuated more strongly than the horizontal. These results suggest that within the vegetation, turbulence contributes more to lateral advection than to vertical mixing. As a result, total suspended solid concentrations were shown to decrease logarithmically with distance from the canopy edge and to decrease at a faster rate in more densely vegetated regions of the canopy (i.e. lower TKE_vert) as compared to areas of sparser vegetation (i.e. higher TKE_vert).     

Transport of salt and suspended sediments in a curving channel of a coastal plain estuary: Satilla River, GA

This study describes the transport of salt and suspended sediment in a curving reach of a shallow mesotidal coastal plain estuary. Circulation data revealed a subtidal upstream bottom flow during neap tide, indicating the presence of a gravitational circulation mode throughout the channel. During spring tide, landward bottom flow weakened considerably at the upstream end of the channel and changed to seaward in the middle and downstream areas of the reach, suggesting the importance of tidal pumping. Salt flux near-bottom was landward at both ends of the channel during neap tide. At spring, however, the salt flux diverged along the bottom of the thalweg suggesting that tidal pumping caused a transfer of salt vertically and laterally into the intertidal zone. Thus, landward flux of salt is maintained even in the presence of subtidal seaward flow along the bottom at the downstream end of the channel.Landward bottom stress is greater than seaward stress, preferentially transporting suspended sediments upstream. Compared with salt, however, the weight of the suspended sediments causes less upward transfer of sediments into the intertidal zone. Flood flow carried more suspended sediments landward at the upstream end compared with the downstream end. We speculate that secondary flow in the curving channel picks up increasing amounts of suspended sediments along the sides during flood and adds them to the axial flow in the thalweg. Since the landward flow along the bottom of the thalweg weakens and even reverses during spring tide, there appears to be a complex re-circulation system for sediments re-suspended in curving channels that complicates the picture of a net transport of sediments landward.     

盐湖地学的研究进展和发展方向

在确定盐湖科学的专业范围并划分分支学科的基础上，对盐湖地学研究中的几个重大理论问题进行了讨论：１．大陆盐湖盆地成盐环境演化过程；２．盐湖卤水的天然随机连续煊化；３．盐湖沉积物质流和湖泊演变旋回发展事件；４．盐湖演变与全球变化。     

Determination of orthophosphate in highly saline waters

Standard methods for the determination of phosphorus as phosphate ion are now well established for fresh and marine waters. In highly saline waters, however, salt effects due to ionic strength, or to particular ions present, may result in method interferences. Three methods of analysis of phosphate based on the formation of phosphomolybdenum blue complexes have been evaluated here for hypersaline waters. Stannous chloride reduction in aqueous media exhibits a substantial salt effect and its use is not recommended. Stannous chloride reduction following extraction into non aqueous solvents shows a significant salt effect (up to 30 per cent) in solutions of salinity >100 g L^–1. Dilution of hypersaline waters to below this salinity may overcome the salt effect but the method suffers from other disadvantages involving resource constraints and health and safety considerations. Ascorbic acid reduction, catalysed by antimony (III) ions, appears to offer the most promise for hypersaline waters. Turbidity in samples having high salinity (> 100 g L^–1) and high phosphorus concentrations (> 500 g P L^–1) changes the spectral characteristics of solutions but linear calibration curves still result for concentrations in the range 400 to 1,000 g P L^–1. The occurrence of turbidity is also affected by the ionic composition of hypersaline waters since solutions made from sea salt give different results to those made from sodium chloride. Dilution of samples, to give salinities less than 100 g L^–1 prior to reduction is recommended to avoid turbidity. The salt effect in these lower salinity waters is less than 3 per cent up to 100 g L^–1.     

Submarine hydrothermal brine seeps off Milos, Greece. Observations and geochemistry

A shallow hydrothermal brine seep located off the Greek island of Milos in the Aegean Sea was studied. The brine fluid outcropped as a pool of water in a seabed depression and was detected in the surrounding pore-waters of sediments colonised by the sulphur bacterium Achromatium volutans. The seep fluid was highly saline and sulphidic, depleted in Mg²⁺ and SO₄²⁻, but enriched over seawater in Na⁺, Ca²⁺, K⁺, Cl⁻, SiO₂, reduced species and dissolved gases. The high concentrations of Na⁺, Ca²⁺ and K⁺ were consistent with the Milos tectonic setting. Na-K and Na-K-Ca geothermometers predicted a reservoir temperature of 300–325 °C for the most concentrated seep samples. The deep geothermal reservoir within the metamorphic basement of Milos island has already been located and studied and may represent the source of the seep fluid. Faunal diversity was lowest in seep-influenced sediments, but a sulphide-intolerant species was found in areas of the bacterial mat where salinity and temperature were much lower. Pressure-induced variations in the vertical depth of the brine interface may be occurring in the sediment.