Fine sediment and nutrient dynamics related to particle size and floc formation in a Burdekin River flood plume, Australia.
نویسندگان
چکیده
The extreme 2010-2011 wet season resulted in highly elevated Burdekin River discharge into the Great Barrier Reef lagoon for a period of 200 days, resulting in a large flood plume extending >50km offshore and >100km north during peak conditions. Export of suspended sediment was dominated by clay and fine silt fractions and most sediment initially settled within ∼10km of the river mouth. Biologically-mediated flocculation of these particles enhanced deposition in the initial low salinity zone. Fine silt and clay particles and nutrients remaining in suspension, were carried as far as 100km northward from the mouth, binding with planktonic and transparent exopolymer particulate matter to form large floc aggregates (muddy marine snow). These aggregates, due to their sticky nature, likely pose a risk to benthic organisms e.g. coral and seagrass through smothering, and also by contributing to increased turbidity during wind-induced resuspension events.
منابع مشابه
Fine-suspended sediment and water budgets for a large, seasonally dry tropical catchment: Burdekin River catchment, Queensland, Australia
The Burdekin River catchment ( 130,400 km) is a seasonally dry tropical catchment located in north-east Queensland, Australia. It is the single largest source of suspended sediment to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Fine sediments are a threat to ecosystems on the GBR where they contribute to elevated turbidity (reduced light), sedimentation stress, and potential impacts from the associated nutri...
متن کاملModelling and monitoring the sediment trapping efficiency and sediment dynamics of the Burdekin Falls Dam, Queensland, Australia
The Burdekin River, Queensland, Australia drains a catchment area of ~130,000 km and contributes approximately 30% of the total sediment supplied (~ 3.8 t) to the Great Barrier Reef Lagoon from all Great Barrier Reef catchments. Much of this watershed (~115,000 km) drains into the Burdekin Falls Dam, the largest dam reservoir in Queensland (1,860 GL capacity; 224 km surface area; average depth ...
متن کاملA Numerical Simulation Study on the Kinetics of Asphaltene Particle Flocculation in a Two-dimensional Shear Flow
In the current study, the kinetics of asphaltene particle flocculation is investigated under a shear flow through numerical simulation. The discrete element method (DEM) is coupled with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to model the agglomeration and fragmentation processes. In addition, a coalescence model is proposed to consider the attachment of colliding particles. The changes in mean asph...
متن کاملRapid sediment removal from the Columbia River plume near field
We compute rates of sediment removal from the Columbia River, USA plume near field using a control volume technique. By using data from repeated transect passes along the plume axis, we account for variations in plume width, depth, and velocity, and we construct a framework for determining the dominant terms in the complete sediment balance. The contribution due to turbulent sediment flux is es...
متن کاملRemote Sensing of Sea Surface Salinity: a Case Study in the Burdekin River, North-eastern Australia
The principles of remotely sensing sea surface salinity are brietly reviewed, The airborne instrument used for this study is a Scanning Low Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SLFMR). It has spatial resolution of typically 500m (depending on the altitude of the aircraft) and a salinity resolution of about I psu, This configuration is suitable for studying the dynamics of river plumes as they form o...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید
ثبت ناماگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید
ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- Marine pollution bulletin
دوره 65 4-9 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2012