Hydrodynamics and sediment dynamics in the German Bight. A focus on observations and numerical modelling in the East Frisian Wadden Sea

Abstract

of the original manuscript: Staneva, J.; Stanev, E.V.; Wolff, J.-O.; Baldewien, T.H.; Reuter, R.; Flemming, B.; Bartholomae, A.; Bolding, K.:Abstract This work deals with analysis of hydrographic observations and results of numerical simulations. The data base includes ADCP observations, continuous measurements on data stations and satellite data originating from the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) onboard the ESA satellite ENVISAT with a spatial resolution of 300 m. Numerical simulations use nested models with horizontal resolutions ranging from 1 km in the German Bight to 200 m in the East Frisian Wadden Sea coupled with a suspended matter transport model. Modern satellite observations have now a comparable horizontal resolution with high-resolution numerical model of the entire area of the East Frisian Wadden Sea allowing to describe and validate new and so far unknown patterns of sediment distribution. The two data sets are consistent and reveal an oscillatory behavior of sediment pools to the north of the back-barrier basins and clear propagation patterns of tidally driven suspended particulate matter outflow into the North Sea. The good agreement between observations and simulations is convincing evidence that the model simulates the basic dynamics and sediment transport processes, which motivates its further use in hindcasting, as well as in the initial steps towards forecasting circulation and sediment dynamics in the coastal zone.

Ocean forecasting for the German Bight: from regional to coastal scales

“…2.4, which is one-way nested in the regional GETM (see Sect. 2 and Staneva et al, 2009;Stanev et al, 2011). Two examples of data assimilation are considered: (1) assimilation of HF radar data in Sect.…”

“…As a counterpart of WAM, we use the German Bight model described by Staneva et al (2009) and . This model is based on GETM (see Sect.…”

Geo-Chip analysis reveals reduced functional diversity of the bacterial community at a dumping site for dredged Elbe sediment

“…Thus, consistent with the HPA, the deposit at the dumping centre predominately comprises sandy sediments (grain size analyses) and is relatively poor in sulphur, nitrogen, carbon and phosphorus and heavy metals (HPA, 2009). After the dumping, the dumped sediment is defeated through hydrographical forces at the dumping site: Cyclonic currents, which are constantly influenced through east wind forcing (Staneva et al, 2009) and the discharge of the adjacent rivers (Howarth, 2001), only assures the local impact of the dumping activity for the marine environment. Consequently, the mixing of sediments and, therefore, the bioavailability of both nutrients and pollutants at the dumping site are restricted, likely resulting in a reduced functional diversity of the bacterial community at the dumping site.…”

“…The current in this area is cyclonic and influenced by east wind forcing (Staneva et al, 2009) and the discharge of the adjacent rivers (Howarth, 2001). The water depths range between 20 and 35 m. All sampling sites, including the reference site, were selected by the responsible authorities.…”

Interannual variability of alongshore spring bloom dynamics in a coastal sea caused by the differential influence of hydrodynamics and light climate

“…north-easterly or south-westerly, current. This feature is relatively stable throughout the year and becomes also evident in the analysis of currents generated by the General Estuarine Transport Model (GETM, Staneva et al, 2009;Stips et al, 2004), which is especially suited to simulate the hydrodynamics in tidally-dominated shallow seas. Significant correlations between the horizontal current components motivated a projection of the two-dimensional flow field onto the mean axis of transport (Fig.…”