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Hydrodynamics and water properties at the entrance of Araçá Bay, Brazil

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Abstract

Current meter and hydrographic properties at the entrance of the Araçá Bay (AB), an intertidal flat adjacent to the São Sebastião channel, were collected between July 2013 and February 2014. These data sets show two different hydrographic periods, marked by a sharp change in the temperature and salinity values, clearly caused by the arrival of the South Atlantic Central Water (SACW). The first period is characterized by small variabilities on both properties with the dominance of coastal water, with relatively low salinity values. The second period shows a strong increase in the average salinity values and a much larger variability of temperature. This change in the hydrographic characteristics seems to be caused by anomalous winds, capable of displacing the SACW toward the coast. On the other hand, current meter data shows that the dynamics is mainly driven by the large-scale wind and is not impacted by the arrival of the SACW. Also, the currents are dominated by the barotropic mode, independently of the stratification differences that are observed between the beginning and end of the observational period.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by FAPESP (Fundação de Apoio a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo) through the project “Biodiversity and Functioning of a Subtropical Coastal Ecosystem: a contribution to integrated management” (FAPESP no 2011/50317-5). Eduardo Siegle and Belmiro Mendes Castro are sponsored by CNPq research fellowships. We also thank the two anonymous reviewers for their comments that substantially improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oceanographic Institute, University of São Paulo, Praça do Oceanográfico 191, 05508-120, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

    Marcelo Dottori, Eduardo Siegle & Belmiro Mendes Castro

Authors
  1. Marcelo Dottori
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  2. Eduardo Siegle
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  3. Belmiro Mendes Castro
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Correspondence to Marcelo Dottori.

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Responsible Editor: Arnoldo Valle-Levinson

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Physics of Estuaries and Coastal Seas 2014 in Porto de Galinhas, PE, Brazil, 19-23 October 2014

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Dottori, M., Siegle, E. & Castro, B.M. Hydrodynamics and water properties at the entrance of Araçá Bay, Brazil. Ocean Dynamics 65, 1731–1741 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-015-0900-4

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