SEDIMENT FLUX VARIABILITY ON TIDAL FLATS: RESULTS FROM MORECAMBE BAY, UK

摘要

Sediment dynamics drive changes in coastal morphology and the habitats formed by these mobile sediments, resulting in impacts to local ecosystems and effecting the management of these natural systems and fisheries. The transport of suspended material in coastal environments is controlled by advective and diffusive processes and understanding the variability of these would lead to a better repre-sentation of suspended sediment, and to models that can better describe sediment movement in coastal environments. To this end fieldwork was carried out on intertidal flats in Morecambe Bay, UK, as part of the BLUEcoast project (bluecoastuk.org). The data collected of hydrodynamics and sediment dynamics were applied to the advection-diffusion equation to determine the horizontal diffusion-dispersion. This highlighted the relative importance of different processes on the tidal flats.