Interannual dynamics of the Yellow River turbid plume: the role of the water-sediment regulation scheme

Fujia Wang¹Xiaoli Bi²Fanzhu Qu^1*Tao Zou²Xiao Hua Wang³Ling Meng²

• ¹Ludong University, Yantai, China
• ²Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Yantai, Shandong Province, China
• ³University of New South Wales, Kensington, New South Wales, Australia

The water-sediment regulation scheme (WSRS), initiated in 2002, induced an impulse delivery of freshwater and sediment within 10-20 days. In this scenario, the Yellow River turbid plumes (YRP), which are theserve as indicators of the marine dispersion of terrestrial materials, displayedexhibited substantial spatio-temporal variations.However, the extension patterns of the YRP and their dynamic mechanisms on an interannual scale remain poorly understoodhow the YRP extends and its dynamic mechanism in interannual scale was still unclear. Using multi-source high-resolution imageries, we examined the YRP variations during 2003-2023. The results revealedindicated that WSRS significantly increased the extensions of YRP, with its area expanding annually from 67.41 ± 25.27 km² to 162.54 ± 39.03 km². Additionally, three distinct types of diffusion patterns were identified, including (Ⅰ) the a frequent prototypical spreading along the direction of river channel expansion, (Ⅱ) the rightward spreading towards Laizhou Bay, and (Ⅲ) the leftward spreading towards the Bohai Bay. River discharge was found to be the main identified as the primary driver controlling the plume extension, followed by wind, which mainly primarily modulated the plume orientations. Furthermore, severala few special cases with unique plume extensions patterns were found observed under episode episodic weather events.