Abrupt changes in freshwater inputs from large rivers usually imply regime shifts in coastal water environments. The influence of a water regulation event on the age of the Yellow River water in the Bohai was modeled using constituent-oriented age and residence time theory to better understand the change in the environmental function of the hydrodynamic field owing to human activities. The water ages in Laizhou Bay, the central basin, and the Bohai strait are sensitive to water regulation. The surface ages in those areas can decrease by about 300 days, particularly in July, and the age stratification is also strengthened. A water regulation event can result in declines in the water age in early July ahead of declines in the water age under climatological conditions(without the regulation event) by about 1 and 5 months in the central basin and Laizhou Bay, respectively. The change in the coastal circulation due to the water regulation event is the primary reason for the change in the Yellow River water age. The high Yellow River flow rate can enhance the density flow and, therefore, reduce the age of the Yellow River water. The subsequent impact of a single water regulation event can last about 1.0 to 4.0 years in different subregions.
LI ZhenWANG HaiyanGUO XinyuLIU ZheGAO HuiwangZHANG Guiling
CART(Constituent-oriented age and residence time theory) and PTM(Particle-tracking method) are two widely used numerical methods to calculate water age. These two methods are essentially equivalent in theory but their results may be different in practice. The difference of the two methods was evaluated by applying them to calculate water age in an idealized one-dimensional domain. The model results by the two methods are consistent with each other in the case with either spatially uniform flow field or spatially uniform diffusion coefficient. If we allow the spatial variation in horizontal diffusion, a term called pseudo displacement arising from the spatial variation of diffusion coefficient likely plays an important role for the PTM to obtain accurate water age. In particular, if the water particle is released at a place where the diffusion is not the weakest, the water age calculated by the PTM without pseudo displacement is much larger than that by the CART. This suggests that the pseudo displacement cannot be neglected in the PTM to calculate water age in a realistic ocean. As an example, we present its potential importance in the Bohai Sea where the diffusion coefficient varies spatially and greatly.
