Coastal and Estuarine Studies

Transcription

1 C o a s t a l a n d E s t u a ri n e S t u d i e s M a n a g i n g E d i t o r s : M a l c o l m J. B o w m a n R i c h a r d T. B a r b e r C h r i s t o p h e r N. K. M o o e r s J o h n A. R a v e n

2 Coastal and Estuarine Studies 39 Mohammed I. El-Sabh Norman Silverberg (Eds.) Oceanography of a Large-Scale Estuarine System The St. Lawrence Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York London Paris Tokyo Hong Kong Barcelona

3 Managing Editors Malcolm J. Bowman Marine Sciences Research Center, State University of New York Stony Brook, N.Y , USA Richard T. Barber Duke Marine Laboratory Beaufort, N.C , USA Christopher N.K. Mooers Ocean Process Analysis Laboratory Institute for the Study of the Earth, Oceans and Space University of New Hampshire Durham, NH , USA John A. Raven Dept. of Biological Sciences, Dundee University Dundee, DD1 4HN, Scotland Contributing Editors Ain Aitsam (Tallinn, USSR) Larry Atkinson (Savannah, USA) Robert C. Beardsley (Woods Hole, USA) Tseng Cheng-Ken (Qingdao, PRC) Keith R. Dyer (Merseyside, UK) Jon B. Hinwood (Melbourne, AUS) Jorg Imberger (Western Australia, AUS) Hideo Kawai (Kyoto, Japan) Paul H. Le Blond (Vancouver, Canada) L. Mysak (Montreal, Canada) AkiraOkubo (Stony Brook, USA) William S. Reebourgh (Fairbanks, USA) David A. Ross (Woods Hole, USA) John H. Simpson (Gwynedd, UK) Absornsuda Siripong (Bangkok, Thailand) Robert L. Smith (Covallis, USA) MathiasTomczak (Sydney, AUS) PaulTyler (Swansea, UK) Editors Mohammed I. El-Sabh Universite du Quebec a Rimouski Rimouski, Quebec, G5L 3A1, Canada Norman Silverberg Institut Maurice-Lamontagne Ste-Flavre Quebec, G5H 3Z4, Canada ISBN Springer-Verlag New York Berlin Heidelberg ISBN Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in other ways, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is only permitted under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and a copyright fee must always be paid. Violations fall under the prosecution act of the German Copyright Law. Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., 1990 Printed in Germany Printing and binding: Druckhaus Beltz, Hemsbach/Bergstr. 2837/ Printed on acid-free paper Copyright American Geophysical Union. Transferred from Springer-Verlag in June 1992.

4 NOAA-9 Satellite infrared thermal image of the StJLawrence Estuary obtained on July 22, 1986, showing frontal zones and mesoscale features discussed in this volume. The temperature ranges from 5 C (dark blue) to 17 C (dark green) to 25 C (dark red).

5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1. The St Lawrence Estuary: Introduction Mohammed I. El-Sabh and Norman Silverberg 1 Why this book? 1 Historical notes 2 A large estuary 4 Contents of the volume 6 Chapter 2. Mathematical Modelling of Tides in the StLawrence Estuary Mohammed I. El-Sabh and Tad. S. Murty 10 Introduction 10 Tidal characteristics of the St. Lawrence Estuary 12 Barotropic models 17 Baroclinic models 39 Conclusions 45 Chapter 3. Meteorologically and Buoyancy Induced Subtidal Salinity and Velocity Variations in the St Lawrence Estuary Kim-TaiTee 51 Introduction 52 Field observation and data analysis 54 The meteorological and buoyancy forcing 54 The meteorologically induced variations 57 The buoyancy induced variations 64 Summary and conclusions 68 Chapter 4. Fronts and Mesoscale Features in the St Lawrence Estuary R. Grant Ingram and Mohammed I. El-Sabh 71 Introduction 71 Upper Estuary 74 Lower Estuary 78 The Gaspe Current 85 Conclusions 88 Chapter 5. Topographic Waves and Topographically Induced Motions in the St Lawrence Estuary Gordon Mertz and Yves Gratton 94 Introduction 94 Internal waves 96 Internal tides and upwelling 98

6 VIII Vorticity waves 102 Conclusions 106 Chapter 6. Recent Sediments and Sediment Transport Processes in the St Lawrence Estuary Bruno d'anglejan. 109 Introduction 109 Physiography 110 Late glacial and Holocene history. 112 Quaternary stratigraphy 114 Distribution of surficial sediments 115 Suspended sediment dynamics and composition 118 Sediment mass balance 124 Summary and conclusions 125 Chapter 7. Nearshore Sediment Dynamics in the St. Lawrence Estuary Georges Drapeau 130 Introduction 130 General setting 132 Mechanisms of nearshore sediment dynamics 135 Long term trends: erosional and accretional shorelines 147 Summary and conclusions 149 Chapter 8. Reactivity and transport of nutrients and metals in the St Lawrence Estuary P A. Yeats 155 Introduction 155 Nutrients 157 Trace metals 159 Metal transport 164 Comparison to other estuaries 165 Chapter 9. Organic Geochemical Studies in the St Lawrence Estuary /JV. Gearing and R. Pocklington 170 Introduction 170 Annual cycles of organic matter 172 Stable isotope ratios 179 Molecular tracers 184 Summary 195 Chapter 10. Sediment-Water Interaction and Early Diagenesis in the Laurentian Trough Norman Silverberg and Bj0rn Sundby 202 Introduction 202 Diagenesis in the Laurentian Trough 205

7 IX Manganese, a case study in diagenesis 224 Considerations for future research 233 Chapter 11. Chemical Contaminants in the St Lawrence Estuary and Saguenay Fjord D. Cossa 239 Introduction 240 Metals 240 Organics 255 Conclusions 262 Chapter 12. Oceanography and Ecology of Phytoplankton in the St Lawrence Estuary Jean-Claude Therriault, Louis Legendre and Serge Demers 269 Introduction 270 Environmental control of phytoplankton biomass and production 270 Regional divisions of the St. Lawrence Estuary 281 Chapter 13. Zooplankton of the St Lawrence Estuary: The Imprint of Physical Processes on its Composition and Distribution J.A. Runge and Y. Simard 296 Introduction 297 Results and discussion 300 Chapter 14. Ichthyoplankton Communities in the St Lawrence Estuary: Composition and Dynamics Yves de Lafontaine 321 Introduction 321 Physical zonation of the estuary 323 Species composition 324 Spatial distribution 329 Temporal variability 336 Conclusions 338 Chapter 15. The Macrobenthic Fauna of the St Lawrence Estuary Bruno Vincent 344 Introduction 344 The intertidal zone 345 The Infralittoral zone 349 The ciicalittoral and bathyal zones 350 Concluding remarks 352 Chapter 16. Marine Fisheries Resources and Oceanography of the St Lawrence Estuary Jacques A. Gagni and Michael Sinclair 358 Introduction 358 The commercial fisheries 359

8 X Importance of the St. Lawrence Estuary on fisheries fluctuations downstream 368 Chapter 17. The Saguenay Fiord: A Major Tributary to the St Lawrence Estuary C.T. Schqfer, J.N. Smith andr. Cotd 378 Introduction 378 Watermass sources and circulation 383 Impact of power dams 389 Sedimentary processes 390 Pollution history and impacts 404 Biological considerations 407 Summary 414 Chapter 18. The St Lawrence Estuary: Concluding Remarks Norman Silverberg and Mohammed I. El-Sabh 421 For the St. Lawrence Estuary, large-scale means variety 421 Future considerations 428 List of Contributors 430 Subject Index 432