HR: 10:30h
AN: OS22A-01    [Abstracts]
TI: Numerical Modeling of the Impact of the River Runoff on the Formation of the Anoxia in the Kangjin Bay, South Sea, Korea
AU: * Ro, Y
EM: royoungj@cnu.ac.kr
AF: Dept of Oceanography, Chungnam Natl. University, Yusung-ku, Kung-dong 220, Taejon, 305-764 Korea, Republic of
AB: Introduction The Kangjin Bay, located in the central part of the South Sea of Korea, is interconnected to neighboring bays and the South Sea through the three narrow channels. The geometry is very complex and the depth is less than 20 m in general. The width at the narrowest site of the Noryang Channel is about 500 m, and the narrowest width of the Changson Channel is about 300 m. The bay receives the Sumjin and Namgang River runoff from the north. The averaged annual discharge of the Sumjin River is about 120 cms. The main objectives of this study to understand the circulation pattern in the Kangjin Bay by tidal current and the impact of the river runoff from the Sumjin River on the ecosystem in the Bay. The Kangjin Bay has been a renowned aqua-culturing bed for several important shellfishes such as large arc shell (Scapharca broughtonii) and short-necked clam(Tapes philippinarum) et al. The water quality, current and meteorological conditions are continuously monitored with very high sampling resolution (10 min.) throughout the year and is published on the Internet web pages (http://oceaninfo.co.kr/kangjin). Detailed technical information for the realtime monitoring system can be referred to Ro et al. (2004). Numerical Solution The tidal circulation of the Kangjin Bay was simulated based on ECOM-3D by forcing the tidal elevations at the open boundaries. The model domain is consisted of the 265*320 grid points with the horizontal grid size is 200 m and 11 vertical sigma levels. Under the CFL condition, the external time step is 10 sec and the internal time step is 300 sec. The drying-flooding procedure was taken into account for treating the area of intertidal flats in the Kangjin bay. Model Results Results of the model simulations will be presented to show the tidal current distributions at flood and ebb phases. The tidal currents in the Kangjin Bay are rather complicated due to its physical settings such as complicated geometry, bottom topography and three open boundaries. Because of the three open channels, the current distribution varies remarkably depending on the location inside the Bay. The tidal residual current patterns show the eddy structures developed near the mouth of the three channels which would have significant impact on the local water quality and ecosystem. Implications for the local ecosystem The circulation is driven by the tidal current most of the year except in the summer season when river runoffs from inflowing two rivers affect the salinity distribution and thereby density current is generated. One of the critical conditions in the Bay is dissolved oxygen contents which exhibit hypoxic conditions in the summer season (June, July and August) when water temperature is very high above 25 deg C and stratification is strong which inhibit the vertical supply of oxygen from the air. It is also considered that the critical bottom shear stress plays an important role in the hypoxic condition by resuspending the organic-rich bottom sediment into the water column which then consumes the oxygen. This study will illucidate the one of the mechnanism which will cause the hypoxic condition by the strong pycnocline formed by the river runoffs in the summer monsoon. The massive death rates of the large arc sheel in the summer might be attributed by the hypoxia formed by the river runoff.
UR: http://oceaninfo.co.kr/kangin/
DE: 4235 Estuarine processes
DE: 4255 Numerical modeling
DE: 4802 Anoxic environments
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly