Slope transport of suspended particulate matter on the Aquitanian margin of the Bay of Biscay |
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| Institution: | 1. Deltares, P.O. Box 177, 2600, MH, Delft, The Netherlands;2. Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, P.O. Box 5048, 2600, GA, Delft, The Netherlands;3. Korean Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST), P.O. Box 426-744, Republic of Korea;4. IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, P.O. Box 3015, 2601, DA, Delft, The Netherlands;5. Water Engineering and Management, Faculty of Engineering Technology, University of Twente, PO Box 217, 7500, AE, Enschede, The Netherlands;1. Environmental Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Department of Civil Engineering, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3 N6, Canada;2. Environment Canada, Water Science & Technology, National Water Research Institute, Canada Centre for Inland Waters, Burlington, Ontario L7R 4A6, Canada;3. Physics of Aquatic Systems Laboratory, Margaretha Kamprad Chair EPFL-ENAC-IEE-APHYS, Lausanne CH-1015, Switzerland |
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| Abstract: | Spatial and temporal characteristics of the water masses and the dispersion of the suspended particulate matter were investigated using current meter, hydrographic and nephelometric observations, gathered during the ECOFER experiment (1989–1991) in the Cap-Ferret Canyon on the Aquitanian margin of the Bay of Biscay. While characteristics of the deep water masses were stable from one year to another, large hydrographic change in the upper 500 m related to winter renewal induced by poleward advection of warm and saline water along the continental slope. The slope circulation and seasonal eddy activity appear as important dynamical mechanisms that control the entrainment and the dispersion of the suspended particulate matter from the neritic domain to the deep ocean. A predominantly northward along-slope current with occasional reversal characterizes this circulation. The nephelometric structures also showed seasonal changes in the overall suspended particulate matter content, but recurrent features, such as the presence of intermediate nepheloid layers at the shelf-break depth and various depths along the slope (～500, 1000 and 2000 m), were observed. These nepheloid layers extended off the slope to about 10–30 km, but especially laterally along the slope. Their presence indicated that suspended particulate matter exchanges between the shelf and the slope occurred mainly in the head of the canyon and along the southern open slope. The intermediate nepheloid layers around 500 m depth detached from the slope particularly in regions where the bottom slope is close to critical for the M2 internal tide. |
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