New River Inlet DRI: Observations and Modeling of Flow and Material Exchange & Field and Numerical Study of the Columbia River Mouth

LONG-TERM GOALS: The goal of our effort is to understand river and inlet fluid dynamics through in situ field observations and model validation.N0001411WX20962; N0001412WX20498; N0001413WX20480; N000141110376, N000141010379, N00014131018

What proportion of riverine nutrients reaches the open ocean?

Globally, rivers deliver significant quantities of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) to the coastal ocean each year. Currently, there are no viable estimates of how much of this N and P escapes biogeochemical processing on the shelf to be exported to the open ocean; most models of N and P cycling assume that either all or none of the riverine nutrients reach the open ocean. We address this problem by using a simple mechanistic model of how a low-salinity plume behaves outside an estuary mouth. The model results in a global map of riverine water residence times on the shelf, typically a few weeks at low latitudes and up to a year at higher latitudes, which agrees well with observations. We combine the map of plume residence times on the shelf with empirical relationships that link residence time to the proportions of dissolved inorganic N (DIN) and P (DIP) exported and use a database of riverine nutrient loads to estimate the global distribution of riverine DIN and DIP supplied to the open ocean. We estimate that 75% of DIN and 80% of DIP reaches the open ocean. Ignoring processing within estuaries yields annual totals of 17 Tg DIN and 1.2 Tg DIP reaching the open ocean. For DIN this supply is about 50% of that supplied via atmospheric deposition, with significant east-west contrasts across the main ocean basins. The main sources of uncertainty are exchange rates across the shelf break and the empirical relationships between nutrient processing and plume residence time

Understanding coastal morphodynamic patterns from depth-averaged sediment concentration

This review highlights the important role of the depth-averaged sediment concentration (DASC) to understand the formation of a number of coastal morphodynamic features that have an alongshore rhythmic pattern: beach cusps, surf zone transverse and crescentic bars, and shoreface-connected sand ridges. We present a formulation and methodology, based on the knowledge of the DASC (which equals the sediment load divided by the water depth), that has been successfully used to understand the characteristics of these features. These sand bodies, relevant for coastal engineering and other disciplines, are located in different parts of the coastal zone and are characterized by different spatial and temporal scales, but the same technique can be used to understand them. Since the sand bodies occur in the presence of depth-averaged currents, the sediment transport approximately equals a sediment load times the current. Moreover, it is assumed that waves essentially mobilize the sediment, and the current increases this mobilization and advects the sediment. In such conditions, knowing the spatial distribution of the DASC and the depth-averaged currents induced by the forcing (waves, wind, and pressure gradients) over the patterns allows inferring the convergence/divergence of sediment transport. Deposition (erosion) occurs where the current flows from areas of high to low (low to high) values of DASC. The formulation and methodology are especially useful to understand the positive feedback mechanisms between flow and morphology leading to the formation of those morphological features, but the physical mechanisms for their migration, their finite-amplitude behavior and their decay can also be explored

Morphodynamics of prograding beaches: A synthesis of seasonal- to century-scale observations of the Columbia River littoral cell

Findings from nearly two decades of research focused on the Columbia River littoral cell (CRLC), a set of rapidly prograding coastal barriers and strand-plains in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, are synthesized to investigate the morphodynamics associated with prograding beaches. Due to a large sediment supply from the Columbia River, the CRLC is the only extensive stretch of shoreline on the U.S. west coast to have advanced significantly seaward during the late Holocene. Since the last Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) earthquake in 1700, with associated co-seismic subsidence and tsunami, much of the CRLC has prograded hundreds of meters. However, the rates of progradation, and the processes most responsible for sediment accumulation, vary depending on time scale and the morphological unit in question. Remarkably, the 20th and early 21st century shoreline change rates were more than double the late prehistoric rates that include recovery from the last major CSZ event, most likely due to an increase in sediment supply resulting from inlet jetty construction. In some locations detailed beach morphology monitoring reveals that at interannual- to decadal-scale the upper shoreface aggraded about 2 cm/yr, subtidal sandbars migrated offshore and decayed while intertidal bars migrated onshore and welded to the shoreline, the shoreline prograded about 4 m/yr, and 1 to 2 new foredune ridges were generated. A detailed meso-scale sediment budget analysis in one location within the littoral cell shows that approximately 100 m³/m/yr accumulated between − 12 m (seaward limit of data) and + 9 m (crest of landward-most foredune). Gradients in alongshore sediment transport, net onshore-directed cross-shore sediment transport within the surf zone, and cross-shore feeding from a shoreface out of equilibrium with forcing conditions are each partially responsible for the significant rates of sediment supplied to the beaches and dunes of the CRLC during the observational period. Direct observations of beach progradation at seasonal- to decadal-scale are put in context of measured or inferred changes over time scales of decades to centuries.This is the publisher’s final pdf. The published article is copyrighted by Elsevier and can be found at: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/marine-geology/Keywords: Morphodynamics, Columbia, River littoral cell, Foredunes, Sediment budget, Coastal barriers, Progradatio

Historical evolution of the Columbia River littoral cell

This paper details the historical coastal evolution of the Columbia River littoral cell in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Geological data from A.D. 1700 and records leading up to the late 1800s provide insights to the natural system dynamics prior to significant human intervention, most notably jetty construction between 1885 and 1917. All reliable surveys, charts, and aerial photos are used to quantify decadal-scale changes at the three estuary entrances and four sub-cells of the littoral cell. Shoreline, bathymetric, and topographic change over three historical intervals—1870s–1920s, 1920s–1950s, and 1950s–1990s—are integrated to provide an understanding of sediment-sharing relationships among the littoral cell components. Regional morphological change data are developed for alongshore segments of approximately 5 km, enabling comparisons of shoreline change to upper-shoreface and barrier volume change within common compartments. The construction of entrance jetties at the Columbia River (1885–1917) and Grays Harbor (1898–1916) has profoundly affected the evolution of the littoral cell, and has accentuated the morphological coupling between the inlets, ebb-tidal deltas, shorefaces, and barriers. The jetties induced erosion of the inlets and offshore migration of ebb-tidal deltas. The change in boundary conditions at the entrances enabled waves to rework the flanks of ebb-tidal deltas and supply enormous quantities of sand to the adjacent coasts. Over several decades the initial sand pulses have been dispersed alongshore up to tens of kilometers from the estuary entrances. Winter waves and coastal currents produce net northward sediment transport across the shoreface while summer conditions tend to induce onshore sediment transport and accumulation of the upper shoreface and barriers at relatively high rates. Historical shoreline progradation rates since jetty construction are approximately double the late prehistoric rates between Kaminsky et al., MGSI 3 of 107 9/15/2009 1700 and the 1870s. Erosion rates of the mid- to lower shoreface to the south of the jettied estuary entrances have typically been greater than the accumulation rates of the upper shoreface and barrier, suggesting that the lower shoreface has been an important source of littoral sediments over decadal and longer time scales. Until recent decades, sediment supply from the ebb-tidal delta flanks and lower shoreface has largely masked the decline in Columbia River sediment supply due to flow regulation and dredging disposal practices. With the contemporary onset and expansion of coastal erosion adjacent to the jettied estuary entrances, proper management of dredged sediment is imperative to mitigate the effects of a declining sediment budget.Keywords: Washington State, Columbia River littoral cell, coastal evolution, sediment budget, shoreline change, large-scale coastal behavior, Oregon Stat

3D acoustic propagation through an estuarine salt wedge at low-to-mid-frequencies: Modeling and measurement

Author Posting. © Acoustical Society of America, 2019. This article is posted here by permission of Acoustical Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 146(3),(2019): 1888-1902, doi:10.1121/1.5125258.The estuarine salt wedge presents a dynamic and highly refractive waveguide, the acoustic propagation characteristics of which are controlled by the water column sound speed gradient and boundary interactions. Acoustically, the salt wedge consists of two isospeed layers separated by a thin, three-dimensional (3D), high-gradient layer. The behavior of a broadband (500–2000 Hz) acoustic field under the influence of an estuarine salt wedge in the Columbia River estuary is explored using two 3D acoustic propagation models: 3D rays and 3D parabolic equation. These model results are compared to data collected during the field experiment. Results demonstrate that the dominant physical mechanism controlling acoustic propagation in this waveguide shifts from 3D bottom scatter in a non-refractive waveguide (before the entrance of the salt wedge) to 3D acoustic refraction with minimal bottom interaction in a refractive waveguide (when the salt wedge occupies the acoustic transect). Vertical and horizontal refraction in the water column and out-of-plane scattering by the bottom are clearly evident at specific narrowband frequencies; however, these mechanisms contribute to, but do not account for, the total observed broadband transmission loss.Environmental input to the acoustic models included high resolution bathymetric survey data provided by Guy Gelfenbaum (USGS), and modeled temperature and salinity profiles of the water column provided by Antonio Baptista, Charles Seaton, and Paul Turner at CMOP. The authors thank Derek Olson (NPS) for invaluable assistance with running the 3DPE model on NPS HPC resources. This work was supported by the Office of Naval Research.2020-03-3

Field measurements of intertidal bar evolution on a high‐energy beach system:Field measurements of intertidal bar evolution

Nearshore bars play a pivotal role in coastal behaviour, helping to protect and restore beach systems particularly in post-storm conditions. Examination of bar behaviour under various forcing conditions is important to help understand the short-to medium-term evolution of sandy beach systems. This study carried out over a nine-week period examines, the behaviour of three intertidal bars along a high energy sandy beach system in northwest Ireland using high-frequency topographic surveys and detailed nearshore hydrodynamic modelling.Results show that, in general, there was onshore migration for all the bars during the study period, despite the variability observed between bars, which was driven mostly by wave dominated processes. Under the prevailing conditions migration rates of up to 1.83 mday(-1) and as low as 0.07 mday(-1) were observed. During higher wave energy events the migration rates of the bars decelerated in their onshore route, however, under lower wave energy conditions, they quickly accelerated maintaining their shoreward migration direction. Tidal influence appears to be subordinate in these conditions, being restricted to moderating the localized wave energy at low tides and in maintaining runnel configurations providing accommodation space for advancing slip faces.The study highlights the intricate behavioural patterns of intertidal bar behaviour along a high energy sandy coastline and provides new insights into the relative importance of wave and tidal forcing on bar behaviour over a relatively short time period. Copyright (C) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd