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The freshwater-saltwater interface and its relationship to the turbidity maximum in the Tamar Estuary, United Kingdom

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Abstract

Data are presented from several experiments in the freshwater-saltwater interface (FSI) region of the Tamar Estuary. Longitudinal surveys of salinity and suspended particulate matter (SPM) at high water showed that the location of the FSI could be predicted in terms of a power-law regression with freshwater runoff. Longitudinal transects also were surveyed over periods of several hours. The FSI was observed to advect into the region on the flood with strong vertical mixing. After high water, stratification became intense as fresher water ebbed in the surface layers. The near-bed water in the stratified region began to ebb between 2 h and 3 h before low water. A model of the vertical structure of longitudinal currents showed that the enhanced stratification on the ebb, coupled with the longitudinal density gradient, partly produced this long period of slack, near-bed currents following high water. A strong turbidity maximum (TM) occurred during spring tides and was located slightly up-estuary of the FSI at high water. Longitudinal transects during a period of low freshwater runoff and large neap tide showed that at the start of the flood the TM was associated with the FSI region. As the FSI advected up-estuary on the flood there was considerable resuspension of sediment at the FSI. Some of this SPM moved with the FSI and reached the limit of saline intrusion, where it formed a slowly-eroding TM as particles settled during the long, high-water slack period. As the near-bed currents increased on the ebb and the FSI moved down-estuary, strong vertical mixing and resuspension of recently deposited sediment occurred in the unstratified water behind the FSI and the associated TM advected down-estuary. Additional effects were present with stronger tides and increased runoff.

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  1. Plymouth Marine Laboratory, PL1 3DH, Plymouth, UK

    R. J. Uncles & J. A. Stephens

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  1. R. J. Uncles
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  2. J. A. Stephens
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Uncles, R.J., Stephens, J.A. The freshwater-saltwater interface and its relationship to the turbidity maximum in the Tamar Estuary, United Kingdom. Estuaries 16, 126–141 (1993). https://doi.org/10.2307/1352770

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1352770

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