Stream nitrogen uptake associated with suspended sediments: A microcosm study

In this study, we investigate how changes in the vertical distribution of suspended sediment affect continuous suspended sediment flux measurements at a location in the San Francisco Estuary. Current methods for measuring continuous suspended sediment flux estimates relate continuous estimates of suspended-sediment concentration (SSC) measured at-a-point (SSCpt) to discrete cross-section measurements of depth-averaged, velocity-weighted SSC (SSCxs). Regressions that compute SSCxs from continuous estimates of SSCpt require that the slope between SSCpt and SSCxs, controlled by the vertical distribution of SSC, is fixed. However, in tidal systems with suspended cohesive sediment, factors that control the vertical SSC profile—vertical turbulent mixing and downward settling of suspended sediment mediated by flocculation of cohesive sediment—constantly vary through each tide and may exhibit systematic differences between flood and ebb tides (tidal asymmetries in water velocity or particle size). We account for changes in the vertical SSC profile on estimates of SSCxs using time series of the Rouse number of the Rouse-Vanoni-Ippen equation combined with optical turbidity measurements, a surrogate for SSCpt, to predict SSCxs from 2009 to 2011 and 2013. Time series of the Rouse number were estimated by fitting the Rouse-Vanoni-Ippen equation to SSC estimated from optical-turbidity measurements taken at two elevations in the water column. When accounting for changes in the vertical SSC profile, changes in not only the magnitude but also the direction of cumulative sediment-flux measurements were observed. For example, at a mid-depth sensor, sediment flux estimates changed from − 319 kt (± 65 kt, negative indicating net seaward transport) to 482 kt (± 140 kt, positive indicating net landward transport) for 2009–2011 and from − 388 kt (± 140 kt) to 1869 kt (± 406 kt) for 2013–2016. At the study location, estimation of SSCxs solely from SSCpt resulted in sediment flux values that were underestimates on flood tides and overestimates on ebb tides. This asymmetry is driven by covariance between water velocity and particle settling velocity (Ws) with larger Ws on flood compared to ebb tides. Results of this study indicate that suspended-sediment-flux measurements estimated from point estimates of SSC may be biased if systematic changes in the vertical distribution of SSC are unaccounted for.

Dynamic release process of pollutants during suspended sediment transport in aquatic system

Tidung Island, located near Jakarta Bay, is a tourism and conservation area. It is necessary to keep these seawaters unpolluted. To calculate the level of pollution, it is necessary to know the sediment concentration. Quantifying concentration suspended sediment is important for knowledge of sediment transport. Researchers usually use water sample analysis and optical method for quantifying suspended sediment in seawater. Less accuracies of these methods are due to under sample of seawater and the existence of biological fouling. One promising method to measure concentration of suspended sediment is using Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP). ADCP is usually used by oceanographer and hydrographer to measure ocean current. In this research, ADCP with 300 kHz operating frequency was used effectively to measure suspended sediment concentration (SSC) and ocean current simultaneously. The echo intensity received from suspended sediment was computed using sonar equations to quantify SSC. The empirical equation between echo intensity and SSC was found. The SSC value obtained by ADCP was also compared with in situ measurement. The result showed that quantified SSC value obtained by ADCP was nearly equal with SSC obtained from in situ measurement with coefficient correlation of 0.98. The high concentration ranged from 55 mg/L to 80 mg/L at the surface layer to a depth 12 m, moderate concentration ranged from 45 mg/L to 55 mg/L at a depth 12 m to 40 m, and low concentration less than 45 mg/L at a depth greater than 40 m. The distribution of SSC was correlated with ocean current condition. In small currents, suspended solids will settle faster so that the concentration in the water column will decrease. Conversely, if the velocity is high, suspended solids will continue to float carried by the current in the water column so that the concentration is high.

The Huanghe River (Yellow River) is known by its high suspended sediment concentration (SSC) in its river mouth tidal flat. However, the factors controlling the high SSC over there are not well understood. Therefore, we conducted 7-d hydrodynamic observations (water depth, wave height, and current velocity) and SSC measurements on the tidal flat off the Huanghe River Mouth. The data shows that in most of time, under the calm sea condition, the SSC ranges 0.1–3.5 g/L, and sediment discharge from the river is the main source. However, when hydrodynamics are enhanced in a tidal cycle and large-scale erosion occurs on the seafloor, resuspended sediment becomes the main source, and the SSC in the water column reaches 17.3 g/L. We find the suspended sediment flux is mainly controlled by the tidal current and Stokes drift, while the wave-induced shear stress could also affect the variation of suspended sediment flux. During the observation period, when sea under calm-rippled conditions, the current-induced resuspended sediment concentration (RSC) was greater than the wave-induced RSC. In contrast, in smooth-wavelet sea conditions, the wave-induced RSC was greater than the current-induced RSC, for instance, a single wave event was found to cause 11.8 cm seabed erosion within 6 h. This study reveals different controlling factors for the high SSC near a river-influenced tidal flat, and helps us get a better understanding of a delta’s depositional and erosional mechanisms.

Tao, J.; Xu, F.; Yao, P.; Zhou, Z., and Zhang, C., 2018. The variations of sediment transport patterns in the radial sand ridges along the Jiangsu coast, China over the last 30 years. In: Shim, J.-S.; Chun, I., and Lim, H.S. (eds.), Proceedings from the International Coastal Symposium (ICS) 2018 (Busan, Republic of Korea). Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 85, pp. 216–220. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.The research objective is to clarify the primary factors lead to the variations of the suspended sediment transport in the radial sand ridges (RSRs) along the Jiangsu Coast over the last 30 years. The suspended sediment concentration (SSC) fields measured in several field surveys from 1980 to 2010 were analyzed. The field data indicate that the SSCs in 1980 are higher than those 2010. A two-dimensional numerical model was developed to simulate the inter-annual variations of the suspended sediment transport. Generally, the magnitude of the SSC is highly relevant with the current speed, which peaks around the Old Yellow River Delta (OYRD) and in the central RSRs. However, the northern part of the RSRs indicates higher SSC than the southern part, which is attributed to their different bed sediment composition. The net suspended sediment flux was calculated. In the north of the RSRs, the sediments are transported in the south direction, which implies a sediment input from the OYRD to the RSRs. In the south of the RSRs, a net sediment loss was observed, which is consistent with the decreasing of the sediment flux from the Yangtze River. The simulated suspended sediment transport in 1980 and 2010 mutually show similar spatial patterns, while SSCs in 1980 are overall larger than those in 2010. It is concluded that the decrease of the SSCs from 1980 to 2010 is attributed to the reduction of the OYRD and the large-scale reclamation along the Jiangsu coast, while the sediment fluxes from the Yangtze River is less important.

The romans had a technique for it : F. E. Wertheim in Heating, Piping and Air Conditioning, Vol. 9, No. 9

Abstract. Turbidity, a measure of water clarity, is monitored for a variety of purposes including (1) to help determine whether water is safe to drink, (2) to establish background conditions of lakes and rivers and detect pollution caused by construction projects and stormwater discharge, (3) to study sediment transport in rivers and erosion in catchments, (4) to manage siltation of water reservoirs, and (5) to establish connections with aquatic biological properties, such as primary production and predator–prey interactions. Turbidity is typically measured with an optical probe that detects light scattered from particles in the water. Probes have defined upper limits of the range of turbidity that they can measure. The general assumption is that when turbidity exceeds this upper limit, the values of turbidity will be constant, i.e., the probe is “pegged”; however, this assumption is not necessarily valid. In rivers with limited variation in the physical properties of the suspended sediment, at lower suspended-sediment concentrations, an increase in suspended-sediment concentration will cause a linear increase in turbidity. When the suspended-sediment concentration in these rivers is high, turbidity levels can exceed the upper measurement limit of an optical probe and record a constant “pegged” value. However, at extremely high suspended-sediment concentrations, optical turbidity probes do not necessarily stay “pegged” at a constant value. Data from the Colorado River in Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA, and a laboratory experiment both demonstrate that when turbidity exceeds instrument-pegged conditions, increasing suspended-sediment concentration (and thus increasing turbidity) may cause optical probes to record decreasing “false” turbidity values that appear to be within the valid measurement range of the probe. Therefore, under high-turbidity conditions, other surrogate measurements of turbidity (e.g., acoustic-attenuation measurements or suspended-sediment samples) are necessary to correct these low false turbidity measurements and accurately measure turbidity.

The present study was undertaken with the objective of monitoring historical changes in suspended sediments of Shivsagar Reservoir, Satara located in Maharashtra using Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud computing. The study was conducted based on remotely sensed satellite data. Normalized Difference Suspended Sediment Index (NDSSI) values were computed using satellite imagery over the study area. Suspended sediment concentration over the area was also estimated using regression equation based on NDSSI. In the due process NDSSI and SSC were mapped in Shivsagar reservoir for the year 2000 and 2020 using Landsat 7 top of the atmosphere (TOA) and Landsat 8 TOA satellite imagery, respectively. Outcomes of study indicated that, mean monthly NDSSI values showed decreasing trend from January to May month and gradual increasing trend from June to December month over the study period. Mean NDSSI values for winter and Post Monsoon season were observed to be 0.4352 and 0.4187, respectively. Similarly, mean NDSSI values for Pre-Monsoon and Monsoon seasons were 0.2496 and 0.2474, respectively. It was therefore inferred that; turbid water having higher suspended sediment concentrations is present during pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons and clear water with lower suspended sediment concentration was present during winter and post monsoon season. Also, higher values of NDSSI values were seen in the year 2000 than year 2020. Estimated Suspended Sediment Concentration (SSC) values over most of the areas in Shivasagar Lake in the year 2000 were in the range of 86.83-773.52 mg/litre whereas, for year 2020 SSC values were in the range of 94.74- 2815.35 mg/litre. It is concluded that, GEE cloud computing can be effectively used for monitoring changes in the SSC of reservoirs.

Suspended sediment dynamics play an important role in controlling nearshore and estuarine geomorphology and the associated ecological environments. Modeling the transport of suspended sediment is a complicated and challenging research topic. The goal of this study is to improve the accuracy of modeling the suspended sediment concentrations (SSCs) with newly developed techniques. Based on a three-dimensional suspended cohesive sediment transport model, the transport of suspended sediment and SSCs are simulated by assimilating SSCs retrieved from the Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) with the adjoint data assimilation in the Hangzhou Bay, a typical strong tidal estuary along the coast of the East China Sea. To improve the effect of the data assimilation, the penalty function method, in which the reasonable constraints of the estimated model parameters are added to the cost function as penalty terms, will be introduced for the first time into the adjoint data assimilation in the SSCs modeling. In twin experiments, the prescribed spatially varying settling velocity is estimated by assimilating the synthetic SSC observations, and the results show that the penalty function method can further improve the effect of data assimilation and parameter estimation, regardless of synthetic SSC observations being contaminated by random artificial errors. In practical experiments, the spatially varying settling velocity is firstly estimated by assimilating the actual GOCI-retrieved SSCs. The results demonstrate that the simulated results can be improved by the adjoint data assimilation, and the penalty function method can additionally reduce the mean absolute error (MAE) between the independent check observations and the corresponding simulated SSCs from 1.44 × 10−1 kg/m3 to 1.30 × 10−1 kg/m3. To pursue greater simulation accuracy, the spatially varying settling velocity, resuspension rate, critical shear stress and initial conditions are simultaneously estimated by assimilating the actual GOCI-retrieved SSCs to simulate the SSCs in the Hangzhou Bay. When the adjoint data assimilation and the penalty function method are simultaneously used, the MAE between the independent check observations and the corresponding simulated SSCs is just 9.90 × 10−2 kg/m3, which is substantially less than that when only the settling velocity is estimated. The MAE is also considerably less than that when the four model parameters are estimated to be without using the penalty function method. This study indicates that the adjoint data assimilation can effectively improve the SSC simulation accuracy, and the penalty function method can limit the variation range of the estimated model parameters to further improve the effect of data assimilation and parameter estimation.

Abstract. An increase in riverine nutrient loads has generally been recognized as the primary cause of coastal deoxygenation, whereas the role of other riverine factors, especially suspended sediments, has received less attention. This study aims to discern the impacts of anthropogenic alterations in various riverine inputs on the subsurface deoxygenation over the past three decades in a large river-dominated estuary, the Pearl River estuary (PRE). Using a physical–biogeochemical model, we reproduced the observed dissolved oxygen (DO) conditions off the PRE in the historical period (the 1990s, with a high suspended sediment concentration (SSC), high DO, and low nutrients) and the present period (the 2010s, with low SSC, low DO, and high nutrients). In the 2010s, the PRE exhibited more extensive and persistent summer hypoxia, with the low-oxygen area (DO<4mgL-1) expanding by ∼148 % (to ∼2926 km2) and the hypoxia area (DO<3mgL-1) increasing by 192 % (to ∼617 km2). Low-oxygen durations extended to 15–35 d, and three distinct hypoxic centers formed under different controlling factors. Single-factor experiments suggested that the decreased riverine DO content (46 %) alone expanded low-oxygen areas in the upper estuarine regions by 44 %, the decreased SSC (by 60 %) alone caused a 47 % expansion in the lower reaches of the PRE, and the increased nutrients alone (100 % in dissolved inorganic nitrogen and 225 % in phosphate) drove a 31 % expansion. In comparison, the combined nutrient increases and the SSC declines synergistically enhanced primary production and bottom oxygen consumptions (dominated by sediment oxygen uptake), amplifying low-oxygen (104 %) and hypoxic (192 %) area growth in lower estuaries. Our results revealed that, by improving light availability for productivity, SSC declines play a larger role than nutrient increases in exacerbating deoxygenation off the PRE. This synergy complicates hypoxia mitigation efforts focused solely on nutrient controls. Given the widespread global declines in riverine suspended sediments, our findings underscore the importance of incorporating sediment-mediated processes, a relatively overlooked factor, in coastal deoxygenation studies.

This research addressed the separate and combined impacts of climate and land use change on streamflow, suspended sediment and water quality in the Kor River Basin, Southwest of Iran, using (BASINS–WinHSPF) model. The model was calibrated and validated for hydrology, sediment and water quality for the period 2003–2012. The model was run under two climate changes, two land use changes and four combined change scenarios for near-future period (2020–2049). The results revealed that projected climate change impacts include an increase in streamflow (maximum increases of 52% under RCP 2.6 in December and 170% under RCP 8.5). Projected sediment concentrations under climate change scenarios showed a monthly average decrease of 10%. For land use change scenarios, agricultural development scenario indicated an opposite direction of changes in orthophosphate (increases in all months with an average increase of 6% under agricultural development scenario), leading to the conclusion that land use change is the dominant factor in nutrient concentration changes. Combined impacts results indicated that streamflows in late fall and winter months increased while in summer and early fall decreased. Suspended sediment and orthophosphate concentrations were decreased in all months except for increases in suspended sediment concentrations in September and October and orthophosphate concentrations in late winter and early spring due to the impact of land use change scenarios.

Dredging can lead to an increase in suspended sediment concentration, which poses a threat to the survival of fish eggs and larvae.To assess the impact of dredging on fish eggs and larvae, Caotan Fishing Port in south China was chosen as a case in this paper. The threat to the survival of fish eggs and larvae, i.e. the increased suspended sediment concentrations, is identified through analyzing pollution sources in dredging operations; the number and species of fish eggs and larvae were obtained through on-site investigations; the concentration and influence range of suspended sediments are calculated by pollutant diffusion equations; the loss of fish eggs and larvae caused by suspended sediment during dredging is evaluated according to Technical Regulations for the Impact Assessment of Construction Projects on Marine Biological Resources (SC/T 9110-2007) in this paper. It can be preliminarily concluded that the suspended sediments produced during dredging and backfilling have an impact on the survival of fish eggs and larvae, and will reduce their quantity. Currently, loss analysis methods are based on empirical formulas, and more accurate quantitative analysis needs to be further studied.

This thesis presents the results of new and original research on suspended sediment (SS) and nutrient concentrations and loads on the Rivers Bandon and Owenabue in the south of Ireland. It addresses the knowledge gap in SS and nutrient concentration data and in particular SS load/yield estimation methods. A comprehensive database of SS and nutrient concentrations has been established. An investigation into the relationship between water discharge and sediment and nutrient transport is presented and new original relationships between turbidity and suspended sediment concentration (SSC) and nutrients are developed. Turbidity-based suspended sediment loads (SSL) are estimated from the continuous turbidity record using the developed relationships with annual loads of 9.7 tonnes per square kilometre per year (t km‘‘ year’') and 18 t km'^ year ' estimated for the Rivers Bandon and Owenabue, respectively. Rating curves are developed to assess their accuracy compared to the turbidity-based SSL for the first time in an Irish context. Generally, rising stage and winter rating curves explain the variation in sediment concentration well (r‘ > 0.4), but winter and falling stage curves are not a good fit. Rating curves are shown to provide acceptable estimates of SSL at the large (annual) scale on both rivers, without the need for stage or seasonal rating curve separation. The variation in SSC between and within storm events is found to be large and over 73% of the total annual load is transported when flows are above the 10% exceedance flow rate on both rivers, indicating that stonn-based events are critical to load delivery. The sediment associated nutrient transport in the two rivers is also examined, with brief surges in particulate forms of nitrogen and phosphorus observed at the onset of the events analysed. These are accompanied by decreases in the dissolved forms of the monitored nutrients. Turbidity is used as a surrogate for phosphorus concentrations, as it correlates well with most of phosphorus species concentrations. Nitrogen does not correlate well with turbidity or SSC, and loads are estimated using an averaging estimator (interpolation). The particulate fraction of nutrient transport is found to be 25% and 35% of the respective total nitrogen and total phosphorus yields on the River Bandon, and 41% and 52% on the River Owenabue. The total portion of SSL consisting of particulate nutrients is estimated to be in excess of 10% on both the River Bandon and the River Owenabue.

Field and theoretical investigation of sediment mass fluxes on an accretional coastal mudflat

The application of Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) can be used not only for measuring ocean currents, but also for quantifying suspended sediment concentrations (SSC) from acoustic backscatter strength based on sonar principle. Suspended sediment has long been recognized as the largest sources of sea contaminant and must be considered as one of the important parameters in water quality of seawater. This research was to determine SSC from measured acoustic backscattered intensity of static and mobile ADCP. In this study, vertically mounted 400 kHz and 750 kHz static ADCP were deployed in Lembeh Strait, North Sulawesi. A mobile ADCP 307.2 kHz was also mounted on the boat and moved to the predefined cross-section, accordingly. The linear regression analysis of echo intensity measured by ADCP and by direct measurement methods showed that ADCP is a reliable method to measure SSC with correlation coefficient (r) 0.92. Higher SSC was observed in low water compared to that in high water and near port area compared to those in observed areas. All of this analysis showed that the combination of static and mobile ADCP methods produces reasonably good spatial and temporal data of SSC.