Effects of Prevailing Winds on Turbidity of a Shallow Estuary

Hyun Jung Cho
Additional contact information
Hyun Jung Cho: Department of Biology, Jackson State University, 1400 Lynch Street, P.O. Box 18540, Jackson, Mississippi, USA

IJERPH, 2007, vol. 4, issue 2, 1-8

Abstract: Estuarine waters are generally more turbid than lakes or marine waters due to greater algal mass and continual re-suspension of sediments. The varying effects of diurnal and seasonal prevailing winds on the turbidity condition of a wind-dominated estuary were investigated by spatial and statistical analyses of wind direction, water level, turbidity, chlorophyll a, and PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) collected in Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, USA. The prolonged prevailing winds were responsible for the long-term, large-scale turbidity pattern of the estuary, whereas the short-term changes in wind direction had differential effects on turbidity and water level in varying locations. There were temporal and spatial changes in the relationship between vertical light attenuation coefficient (K d ) and turbidity, which indicate difference in phytoplankton and color also affect K d . This study demonstrates that the effect of wind on turbidity and water level on different shores can be identified through system-specific analyses of turbidity patterns.

Keywords: Wind direction; turbidity; water level; estuary; Lake Pontchartrain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/4/2/185/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/4/2/185/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:4:y:2007:i:2:p:185-192:d:2341

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().