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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Physical Oceanography
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1411770
This article is part of the Research Topic Impact of Ocean Forcing on the Coastal Hydrology, Environment and Freshwater Resources View all 12 articles

Impacts of sea ice on suspended sediment transport during heavy ice years in the Bohai Sea

Provisionally accepted
Siyu Liu Siyu Liu 1,2Guangxue Li Guangxue Li 1,3*Shidong Liu Shidong Liu 1,3Lei Zhang Lei Zhang 1Mengqi Li Mengqi Li 4Qi Feng Qi Feng 1Lvyang Xing Lvyang Xing 1Di Yu Di Yu 1Yufeng Pan Yufeng Pan 1
  • 1 Department of Marine Earth Sciences, College of Marine Geo Sciences, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China
  • 2 Academy of the Future Ocean, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China, China
  • 3 Key Lab of Submarine Geosciences and Prospecting Techniques, College of Marine Geo Sciences, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
  • 4 Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development (RIPED), Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The Bohai Sea, known for being the lowest latitude seasonally frozen sea area in the world, experienced severe ice conditions with a 30-year recurrence period during the winter of 2009-2010. Water-sediment flux is a crucial parameter for water quality management in marine environment. Using a highly accurate three-dimensional hydrodynamic and sediment transport numerical model, the significant wave height (Hs), current velocity, suspended sediment concentration (SSC) and water-sediment flux in the Bohai Sea during ice-covered and ice-free conditions are compared. Our findings indicate that the current velocity and sediment resuspension decrease under the ice coverage, but increase at the edge of the ice. The net outflow tidal flux (TF) in winter under ice-free conditions accounts for 24.5% of the whole year. The net outflow TF increases by 32.7% during ice-covered conditions, primarily due to the pressure difference between high air pressure superimposing heavy sea ice in the northwest Bohai Sea and the low air pressure in Bohai Strait, resulting in increased ebb velocity and decreased flood velocity. The net outflow suspended sediment flux (SSF) during ice-free conditions in the winter is 2.32×109 kg, while SSF increases by 1.24 times during ice-covered conditions, leading to worse water quality in the outer sea. The decrease of TF in the southern part of the Bohai Strait and the reduction of suspended sediment concentration by nearly 15 mg/l lead to the significant decrease in SSF. This study has significance guiding value for understanding the source-sink sedimentation system and water quality research in East China Sea.

    Keywords: Bohai Sea, sea ice, Water-sediment flux, sediment resuspension, Pressure Highlights

    Received: 04 Apr 2024; Accepted: 22 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Liu, Li, Liu, Zhang, Li, Feng, Xing, Yu and Pan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Guangxue Li, Department of Marine Earth Sciences, College of Marine Geo Sciences, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China

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