HR: 1340h
AN: OS13A-0510    [Abstracts]
TI: Influence of Non-Uniform Cross-Sectional Area on the Salinity Intrusion
AU: * Gay, P S
EM: peter.gay@uconn.edu
AF: University of Connecticut, Marine Sciences, Avery Point, Groton, CT 06340 United States
AU: O'Donnell, J
EM: james.odonnell@uconn.edu
AF: University of Connecticut, Marine Sciences, Avery Point, Groton, CT 06340 United States
AB: Observations in estuaries as diverse as the Delaware and San Francisco Bays indicate that the salinity intrusion is buffered against changes in runoff. One suggested explanation is the feedback between circulation and stratification. Another, which we explore in this paper, is the influence of non-uniform bathymetry. We develop a model with a linearly varying cross-sectional area and a dispersive salt-budget for the region between the freshwater end and a specified isohaline, which we define as the location of the salinity intrusion. We find that predicted variability in the salinity intrusion is much closer to observations than for uniform channel models. This approach is applied to observations from the Chesapeake Bay, the Delaware Bay and River, and the Connecticut River, which shows anomalously strong variation in the salinity intrusion.
DE: 4235 Estuarine processes
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting