Impact of Sea Ice on the Hydrodynamics and Suspended Sediment Concentration in the Coastal Waters of Qinhuangdao, China

Abstract

The influence of sea ice on the hydrodynamics, sediment resuspension, and suspended sediment concentration (SSC) in the coastal area of Qinhuangdao was systematically investigated using 45-day in situ measurements at two stations (with ice at station M1 and without ice at station M2) in the Bohai Sea in the winter of 2018. It was found that the daily fluctuations of temperature and salinity at M1 are more significant than those at M2. During a typical seawater icing event on January 28, the temperature and salinity of the bottom water at M1 were decreased by 1.77 °C and increased by 0.4 psu, respectively. Moreover, due to the shielding effect of the sea ice, the residual current was much less affected by the wind at M1 than at M2. For the vertical distribution of current velocity, it changed from a traditional logarithmic type under ice-free conditions to parabolic type under ice-covered conditions due to the larger drag coefficient of the water body on the solid ice surface. For the SSC and turbidity at the bottom layer, the average values were 4.9 μL/L and 8.6 NTU at M1, respectively, approximately half of those at M2. The smaller SSC and turbidity at M1 can be attributed to the lower near-bottom turbulent kinetic energy (TKE). At M2, however, the larger SSC is closely related to the strong wind forcing, which could induce higher TKE without sea ice cover, and hence stronger turbulent resuspension. The seabed sediment analysis results showed that in the study area, fine sand is most likely to resuspend, while cohesive particles would resuspend only under strong hydrodynamic conditions.