Spatio‐temporal distribution, along‐channel transport, and post‐riverflood recovery of salinity in the Guadalquivir estuary (SW Spain)

TLDR

The Guadalquivir estuary is a mesotidal system that is positive, well‑mixed, and tidally dominated under low‑flow conditions. The study experimentally analyzes salinity distribution, salt balance, and saline intrusion relative to freshwater discharge, and examines subtidal response and recovery under high river‑flow conditions. The authors employ an experimental approach that characterizes a nonstationary longitudinal dispersion coefficient and shows that tidal‑averaged salt flux is governed mainly by nontidal transport, Stokes transport, and tidal pumping from current‑salinity covariance. The three mechanisms account for more than 98 % of flux variation, and during post‑riverflood recovery the tidal‑averaged salinity rises linearly over two weeks with a salt‑intrusion front moving at 4 cm s⁻¹; the 2 psu isohaline intrusion distance depends on discharge, exhibiting distinct regimes below 20.

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental analysis of the salinity distribution, the salt balance, and the variation of the saline intrusion in comparison to the freshwater discharge in the Guadalquivir estuary, which is a mesotidal system regulated and normally subjected to extremely low river flows. In such low‐flow conditions, it is positive, well‐mixed, and tidally dominated. The estuary is also characterized by a nonstationary, effective longitudinal dispersion coefficient, whose probability density becomes increasingly narrower and whose mean value is higher further upstream. The tidal‐averaged salt flux is controlled by the following mechanisms (in order of importance): the nontidal transport, the Stokes transport, and the tidal pumping induced by the covariance between the current and salinity. These three factors account for more than 98 % of the flux variation. In high river‐flow conditions, the subtidal response and recovery of the estuary to changes in the river flow is analyzed. The increase in the tidal‐averaged salinity during the first 2 weeks of the post‐riverflood recovery in the middle and upper sections of the estuary is found to be linear in time. During that time, the celerity of the salt intrusion front was 4cm/s. The 2 psu isohaline salt intrusion X 2 exhibits a complex dependence on the river flow Q d , including the effects of human interventions in the estuary. Three regimes are identified for the intrusion: X 2 =57.0± 2.1km for discharges of less than 20m 3 /s, X 2 proportional to between 20 and 1000m 3 /s, and X 2 proportional to for larger discharges.