Sediment transport in estuarine systems has been of increasing interest for scientists during the past few decades. However, the mechanisms for sediment redistribution remain unclear. We characterized in detail sedime...Sediment transport in estuarine systems has been of increasing interest for scientists during the past few decades. However, the mechanisms for sediment redistribution remain unclear. We characterized in detail sediment transport in the Xiaoqing River estuary using the mathematical Weibull function to partition grain-size components of surface sediments in the southwestern Laizhou Bay, Northeast China. Four partitioned components: finer than 4,4.6-12.5, 23.4-63.3, and 67.1-132.6 μm were interpreted in terms of hydrodynamic conditions. During sediment transport, silt grains were suspended and moved seaward from three depositional centers, whereas fine-grained sands moved generally landward. Overall, sediments are transported clockwise in a generally NNE direction near shore and then turn eastward offshore. The mathematical partitioning method showed a great potential for future estuarine environmental studies.展开更多
基金Supported by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No.2012M520369)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos.40906047,41076031,40925012)+1 种基金the State Oceanic Research Project for Public Benefit of China (No.201105020)the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (Nos.2010CB951201,2012CB821900)
文摘Sediment transport in estuarine systems has been of increasing interest for scientists during the past few decades. However, the mechanisms for sediment redistribution remain unclear. We characterized in detail sediment transport in the Xiaoqing River estuary using the mathematical Weibull function to partition grain-size components of surface sediments in the southwestern Laizhou Bay, Northeast China. Four partitioned components: finer than 4,4.6-12.5, 23.4-63.3, and 67.1-132.6 μm were interpreted in terms of hydrodynamic conditions. During sediment transport, silt grains were suspended and moved seaward from three depositional centers, whereas fine-grained sands moved generally landward. Overall, sediments are transported clockwise in a generally NNE direction near shore and then turn eastward offshore. The mathematical partitioning method showed a great potential for future estuarine environmental studies.
