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Mixing, hypersalinity and gradients in Hervey Bay, Australia

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Abstract

Hervey Bay, a large coastal embayment situated off the central eastern coast of Australia, is a shallow tidal area (average depth = 15 m), close to the continental shelf. It shows features of an inverse estuary, due to the high evaporation rate (approx. 2 m/year), low precipitation (less than 1 m/year) and on average almost no freshwater input from rivers that drain into the bay. The hydro- and thermodynamical structures of Hervey Bay and their variability are presented here for the first time, using a combination of four-dimensional modelling and observations from field studies. The numerical studies are performed with the Coupled Hydrodynamical Ecological Model for Regional Shelf Seas (COHERENS). Due to the high tidal range (>3.5 m), the bay is considered as a vertically well-mixed system, and therefore, only horizontal fronts are likely. Recent field measurements, but also the numerical simulations, indicate characteristic features of an inverse/hypersaline estuary with low salinity (35.5 psu) in the open ocean and peak values (>39.0 psu) in the head water of the bay. The model further predicts a nearly persistent mean salinity gradient of 0.5 psu across the bay (with higher salinities close to the shore). The investigation further shows that air temperature, wind direction and tidal regime are mainly responsible for the stability of the inverse circulation and the strength of the salinity gradient across the bay. Due to an ongoing drying trend, the occurrence of severe droughts at the central east coast of Australia and, therefore, a reduction in freshwater supply, the salinity flux out of the bay has increased, and the inverse circulation has also strengthened.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge financial support for this study provided by the Burnett Mary Regional Group, Australia; the Hanse Institute for Advanced Study, Delmenhorst, Germany and the Universitäts-Gesellschaft Oldenburg (UGO). We also gratefully acknowledge the Bureau of Meteorology, Australia; Geoscience Australia and CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research for providing various data for this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICBM, Physical Oceanography (Theory), University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany

    Ulf Gräwe & Jörg-Olaf Wolff

  2. Department of Biological and Physical Sciences, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia

    Joachim Ribbe

Authors
  1. Ulf Gräwe
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  2. Jörg-Olaf Wolff
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  3. Joachim Ribbe
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Correspondence to Ulf Gräwe.

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Responsible Editor: Alejandro Jose Souza

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Gräwe, U., Wolff, JO. & Ribbe, J. Mixing, hypersalinity and gradients in Hervey Bay, Australia. Ocean Dynamics 59, 643–658 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-009-0195-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-009-0195-4

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