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Modelling-based assessment of suspended sediment dynamics in a hypertidal estuarine channel

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Abstract

We investigate the dynamics of suspended sediment transport in a hypertidal estuarine channel which displays a vertically sheared exchange flow. We apply a three-dimensional process-based model coupling hydrodynamics, turbulence and sediment transport to the Dee Estuary, in the north-west region of the UK. The numerical model is used to reproduce observations of suspended sediment and to assess physical processes responsible for the observed suspended sediment concentration patterns. The study period focuses on a calm period during which wave-current interactions can reasonably be neglected. Good agreement between model and observations has been obtained. A series of numerical experiments aim to isolate specific processes and confirm that the suspended sediment dynamics result primarily from advection of a longitudinal gradient in concentration during our study period, combined with resuspension and vertical exchange processes. Horizontal advection of sediment presents a strong semi-diurnal variability, while vertical exchange processes (including time-varying settling as a proxy for flocculation) exhibit a quarter-diurnal variability. Sediment input from the river is found to have very little importance, and spatial gradients in suspended concentration are generated by spatial heterogeneity in bed sediment characteristics and spatial variations in turbulence and bed shear stress.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the funding from the Natural Environment Research Council via the iCOASST project (NERC grant NE/J005444/1) and via National Capability to the National Oceanography Centre. Rafeal Ramirez-Mendoza has been funded through a CONACYT scholarship (ID 212026).

The authors would like to thank J. Williams for providing meteorological data, C. O’Neill for providing boundary conditions for temperature and salinity as well as supplementing the meteorological forcing, and R. Bolaños for interesting discussions on hydrodynamics and sediment dynamics in the Dee Estuary. Finally, we wish to thank the two anonymous reviewers who helped to greatly improve the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Oceanography Centre, Joseph Proudman Building 6, Brownlow Street, Liverpool, L3 5DA, UK

    Laurent O. Amoudry, Rafael Ramirez-Mendoza, Alejandro J. Souza & Jennifer M. Brown

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  1. Laurent O. Amoudry
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  2. Rafael Ramirez-Mendoza
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  3. Alejandro J. Souza
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  4. Jennifer M. Brown
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Correspondence to Laurent O. Amoudry.

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Responsible Editor: Rockwell Geyer

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Physics of Estuaries and Coastal Seas 2012

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Amoudry, L.O., Ramirez-Mendoza, R., Souza, A.J. et al. Modelling-based assessment of suspended sediment dynamics in a hypertidal estuarine channel. Ocean Dynamics 64, 707–722 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-014-0695-8

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