Acta Adriatica, Vol. 55 No. 2, 2014.
Original scientific paper
Riverine impact on the thermohaline properties, turbidity and suspended solids in a shallow bay (Bay of Koper, northern Adriatic Sea)
Rok SOCZKA MANDAC
Branko BOGUNOVIĆ
Dušan ŽAGAR
Jadran FAGANELI
Abstract
The influence of river discharge on the spatial and temporal variability of thermohaline and turbidity conditions at the sea surface (0.5 m) was studied in the shallow Bay of Koper (Gulf of Trieste, northern Adriatic Sea) which is influenced mainly by the polluted Rižana River. Conductivity, temperature and turbidity were measured monthly at 36 sampling sites between June 2011 and June 2013. Empirical orthogonal function analysis (EOF) was applied to investigate the data and to study the spatial distribution of variability and their temporal variations of temperature, salinity, density and turbidity. The EOF results showed an area of high variance in the proximity of the Rižana River mouth for all variables. The high variations in the time series for all variables were shown to be related mainly to high variations in the time series of the river discharges. Coupled field analysis showed the area of low salinity and high turbidity. A strong relationship was found between turbidity and suspended solid (TSS) concentration data collected in the local rivers and near shore zone suggesting that turbidity can be used as a satisfactory surrogate of TSS estimation.
Keywords
River discharge; thermohaline; turbidity; suspended solids; northern Adriatic Sea
Hrčak ID:
135116
URI
Publication date:
1.12.2014.
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