Tidal and nontidal exchange at a subtropical inlet: Destin Inlet, Northwest Florida

Valle‐Levinson, Arnoldo; Huguenard, Kimberly; Ross, Lauren; Branyon, Jackie; MacMahan, Jamie; Reniers, A.J.H.M.

doi:10.1016/j.ecss.2015.01.020

Cited by 20 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…In conclusion the Goro lagoon is a large estuarine area with a net transport of water out of the lagoon equal to −37.8 m 3 s −1 , the largest volume transport of open sea waters occurs in the western channel and the largest outflow of surface waters is from the central portion of the inlet section (Valle-Levinson, 2010;Valle-Levinson et al, 2015).…”

Section: The Goro Lagoon Circulationmentioning

confidence: 81%

Downscaling With an Unstructured Coastal-Ocean Model to the Goro Lagoon and the Po River Delta Branches

et al. 2021

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The Goro Lagoon Finite Element Model (GOLFEM) presented in this paper concentrates on the high-resolution downscaled model of the Goro Lagoon, along with five Po river branches and the coastal area of the Po delta in the northern Adriatic Sea (Italy) where crucial socio-economic activities take place. GOLFEM was validated by means of validation scores (bias – BIAS, root mean square error – RMSE, and mean absolute error – MAE) for the water level, current velocity, salinity and temperature measured at several fixed stations in the lagoon. The range of scores at the stations are: for temperature between −0.8 to +1.2°C, for salinity from −0.2 to 5 PSU, for sea level 0.1 m. The lagoon is dominated by an estuarine vertical circulation due to a double opening at the lagoon mouth and sustained by multiple sources of freshwater inputs. The non-linear interactions among the tidal forcing, the wind and the freshwater inputs affect the lagoon circulation at both seasonal and daily time scales. The sensitivity of the circulation to the forcings was analyzed with several sensitivity experiments done with the exclusion of the tidal forcing and different configurations of the river connections. GOLFEM was designed to resolve the lagoon dynamics at high resolution in order to evaluate the potential effects on the clam farming of two proposed scenarios of human intervention on the morphology of the connection with the sea. We calculated the changes of the lagoon current speed and salinity, and using opportune fitness indexes related to the clams physiology, we quantified analytically the effects of the interventions in terms of extension and persistence of areas of the clams optimal growth. The results demonstrate that the correct management of this kind of fragile environment relies on both long-term (intervention scenarios) and short-term (coastal flooding forecasts and potential anoxic conditions) modeling, based on a flexible tool that is able to consider all the recorded human interventions on the river connections. This study also demonstrates the importance of designing a seamless chain of models that are capable of integrating local effects into the coarser operational oceanographic models.

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Section: The Goro Lagoon Circulationmentioning

confidence: 81%

Downscaling With an Unstructured Coastal-Ocean Model to the Goro Lagoon and the Po River Delta Branches

et al. 2021

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“…Astronomical tides in this region are diurnal and small (i.e., less than 0.6 m, Marmer 1954;Feng and Li 2010). Nevertheless, tidal currents can maintain high velocity, especially in inlets (1-2 m/s, Murphy and Valle-Levinson 2008;Murphy et al 2009;Li et al 2011;Valle-Levinson et al 2015), and in narrow channels inside estuaries (0.5-0.7 m/s, Snedden et al 2007). Within the estuaries, the exchanges between open waters and marshes occur through channel flow and intermittent sheet flow over the marsh platform.…”

Section: Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, measurements in tidal inlets have indicated a bathymetric control on exchange flows and atmospherically forced flows whose magnitude may exceed that of tidal flows (e.g., Li et al 2011;Olabarrieta et al 2017). Exchange flows tend to be laterally sheared under weakly stratified (top-to-bottom density differences < 2 kg/m 3 ) or vertically mixed conditions, and vertically sheared otherwise (Valle-Levinson 2011;Huguenard et al 2015;Valle-Levinson et al 2015;Cui et al 2018). Deep ship channels were also shown to be a critical pathway by which offshore subsurface material could be rapidly transported into estuarine systems (Coogan et al 2019).…”

Section: Findings Of the Gomri Research Programmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transport Processes in the Gulf of Mexico Along the River-Estuary-Shelf-Ocean Continuum: a Review of Research from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative

Justić

Kourafalou

Mariotti

et al. 2021

Estuaries and Coasts

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Estuarine and coastal geomorphology, biogeochemistry, water quality, and coastal food webs in river-dominated shelves of the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) are modulated by transport processes associated with river inputs, winds, waves, tides, and deep-ocean/continental shelf interactions. For instance, transport processes control the fate of river-borne sediments, which in turn affect coastal land loss. Similarly, transport of freshwater, nutrients, and carbon control the dynamics of eutrophication, hypoxia, harmful algal blooms, and coastal acidification. Further, freshwater inflow transports pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals, and oil into receiving estuaries and coastal systems. Lastly, transport processes along the continuum from the rivers and estuaries to coastal and shelf areas and adjacent open ocean (abbreviated herein as “river-estuary-shelf-ocean”) regulate the movements of organisms, including the spatial distributions of individuals and the exchange of genetic information between distinct subpopulations. The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) provided unprecedented opportunities to study transport processes along the river-estuary-shelf-ocean continuum in the GoM. The understanding of transport at multiple spatial and temporal scales in this topographically and dynamically complex marginal sea was improved, allowing for more accurate forecasting of the fate of oil and other constituents. For this review, we focus on five specific transport themes: (i) wetland, estuary, and shelf exchanges; (ii) river-estuary coupling; (iii) nearshore and inlet processes; (iv) open ocean transport processes; and (v) river-induced fronts and cross-basin transport. We then discuss the relevancy of GoMRI findings on the transport processes for ecological connectivity and oil transport and fate. We also examine the implications of new findings for informing the response to future oil spills, and the management of coastal resources and ecosystems. Lastly, we summarize the research gaps identified in the many studies and offer recommendations for continuing the momentum of the research provided by the GoMRI effort. A number of uncertainties were identified that occurred in multiple settings. These include the quantification of sediment, carbon, dissolved gasses and nutrient fluxes during storms, consistent specification of the various external forcings used in analyses, methods for smooth integration of multiscale advection mechanisms across different flow regimes, dynamic coupling of the atmosphere with sub-mesoscale and mesoscale phenomena, and methods for simulating finer-scale dynamics over long time periods. Addressing these uncertainties would allow the scientific community to be better prepared to predict the fate of hydrocarbons and their impacts to the coastal ocean, rivers, and marshes in the event of another spill in the GoM.

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“…The Choctawhatchee bay is located in the NGoMex, it is approximately 43 km long, on average 5 km wide and it is relatively shallow with an average depth of 4 m (Valle-Levinson et al, 2015;Schaeffer, 2010). The Destin inlet is the connection between the gulf and the bay and is ∼ 450 m wide and 7 m deep.…”

Section: The Buoyant Plume Of the Choctawhatchee Bay As A Coastal Promentioning

confidence: 99%

Coastal protection by a small scale river plume against oil spills in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

Kuitenbrouwer

Reniers

MacMahan

et al. 2018

Continental Shelf Research

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The Deepwater Horizon oil spill damaged some beaches along the Northern Gulf of Mexico (NGoMex) coast more than others, possibly related to the presence of natural protection mechanisms. In order to optimize future mitigation efforts to protect the coast, these mechanisms should be understood. The NGoMex coast is characterized by relatively long stretches of sandy beach interrupted by tidal inlets creating ebb-tidal river plumes featuring frontal zones that may act as transport barriers. This research investigates to what extent these plumes are capable of protecting the adjacent coast. This is done by means of a combination of a 3D Eulerian flow model and a Lagrangian particle model to track oil pathways and visualize Lagrangian Coherent Structures located at the plume front. The models are verified with measurements from a field experiment adjacent to Destin Inlet, Florida. The effects of wind, tidal range and river discharge on the oil fate are discussed. It was found that wind is the dominant parameter. Offshore wind prevents oil from beaching. During onshore winds, oil is pushed to shore, but near the inlet the plume is effective in reducing the amount of oil washing ashore during the ebbing tide. In general, the plume redistributes the oil but is not capable of preventing oil from beaching. For strong winds, the influence of the plume is reduced.

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Tidal and nontidal exchange at a subtropical inlet: Destin Inlet, Northwest Florida

Cited by 20 publications

References 36 publications

Downscaling With an Unstructured Coastal-Ocean Model to the Goro Lagoon and the Po River Delta Branches

Downscaling With an Unstructured Coastal-Ocean Model to the Goro Lagoon and the Po River Delta Branches

Transport Processes in the Gulf of Mexico Along the River-Estuary-Shelf-Ocean Continuum: a Review of Research from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative

Coastal protection by a small scale river plume against oil spills in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

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