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The stability of seabed sediments in the embayments of North Rustico, Prince Edward island, Canada

The stability of seabed sediments in the embayments of North Rustico, Prince Edward island, Canada
The stability of seabed sediments in the embayments of North Rustico, Prince Edward island, Canada
This paper describes a series of 15 Sea Carousel deployments made along the two estuaries of North Rustico, Prince Edward Island, Canada: The Hunter river estuary and the Wheatley river estuary. The study was part of a wider study on the environmental impact of coastal changes and aquaculture (Mytilus edulis) development in the region. The study site is situated on the dynamic north shore of PEI characterised by sandy barrier islands, inlets and beaches, and muddy lagoons. The lagoons are dominated by the sea grass Zostera marina in the muddy outer parts and by Ulva lactuca in the eutrophic inner parts. The thresholds for surface erosion of cohesive sediments (0.10 < ?crit,o < 0.75) derived from trends of suspended sediment concentration (C) increases with distance (d) into the estuary: ?crit,o = 0.50exp-0.26d (±0.05) Pa. Location in the estuary is the best predictor of bed stability. The next best predictor is surface sediment wet bulk density (BD) which takes the form: ?crit,o = 6.67E-4(?b) - 0.55 Pa. Erosion rates (E) can only be correlated (significantly) with excess bed shear stress (?ex) by incorporation of a time (depth) varying erosion threshold. A power function emerged of the form: E = Eo?exn (0.28 < n < 1.06). The exponent is within the range from laboratory experiments reported in the literature. The still water settling rates of eroded material are diagnostic of a wide range of sedimentation diameters varying from fine sand to medium silt. The deposition threshold (?d) was evaluated in Lab Carousel for RUS11 and RUS12 and yielded a mean value of 0.51 Pa. The exponential decay constant (k) for still water settling is strongly dependent on initial concentration and suggests a constant settling rate that fits with data from a wide variety of settings throughout Canada.
0749-0208
293-307
Amos, C.L.
d0a18a13-bccd-4fdc-8901-aea595d4ed5c
Brylinksy, M.
e987ec99-f984-406a-b1f2-00242cb86f18
Forbes, D.L.
98d91d6c-34d3-4401-bc2a-1684d936f597
Robertson, A
77f55b79-7782-444c-bf20-21e73676d2d4
Thompson, C.E.L.
2a304aa6-761e-4d99-b227-cedb67129bfb
Kassem, H.
658efa7a-a02c-4b29-9d07-5d57e95a4b51
Amos, C.L.
d0a18a13-bccd-4fdc-8901-aea595d4ed5c
Brylinksy, M.
e987ec99-f984-406a-b1f2-00242cb86f18
Forbes, D.L.
98d91d6c-34d3-4401-bc2a-1684d936f597
Robertson, A
77f55b79-7782-444c-bf20-21e73676d2d4
Thompson, C.E.L.
2a304aa6-761e-4d99-b227-cedb67129bfb
Kassem, H.
658efa7a-a02c-4b29-9d07-5d57e95a4b51

Amos, C.L., Brylinksy, M. and Forbes, D.L. et al. (2018) The stability of seabed sediments in the embayments of North Rustico, Prince Edward island, Canada. Journal of Coastal Research, 34 (2), 293-307. (doi:10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-16-00192.1).

Record type: Article

Abstract

This paper describes a series of 15 Sea Carousel deployments made along the two estuaries of North Rustico, Prince Edward Island, Canada: The Hunter river estuary and the Wheatley river estuary. The study was part of a wider study on the environmental impact of coastal changes and aquaculture (Mytilus edulis) development in the region. The study site is situated on the dynamic north shore of PEI characterised by sandy barrier islands, inlets and beaches, and muddy lagoons. The lagoons are dominated by the sea grass Zostera marina in the muddy outer parts and by Ulva lactuca in the eutrophic inner parts. The thresholds for surface erosion of cohesive sediments (0.10 < ?crit,o < 0.75) derived from trends of suspended sediment concentration (C) increases with distance (d) into the estuary: ?crit,o = 0.50exp-0.26d (±0.05) Pa. Location in the estuary is the best predictor of bed stability. The next best predictor is surface sediment wet bulk density (BD) which takes the form: ?crit,o = 6.67E-4(?b) - 0.55 Pa. Erosion rates (E) can only be correlated (significantly) with excess bed shear stress (?ex) by incorporation of a time (depth) varying erosion threshold. A power function emerged of the form: E = Eo?exn (0.28 < n < 1.06). The exponent is within the range from laboratory experiments reported in the literature. The still water settling rates of eroded material are diagnostic of a wide range of sedimentation diameters varying from fine sand to medium silt. The deposition threshold (?d) was evaluated in Lab Carousel for RUS11 and RUS12 and yielded a mean value of 0.51 Pa. The exponential decay constant (k) for still water settling is strongly dependent on initial concentration and suggests a constant settling rate that fits with data from a wide variety of settings throughout Canada.

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Accepted/In Press date: 31 January 2017
e-pub ahead of print date: 7 July 2017
Published date: March 2018
Organisations: Ocean and Earth Science, Geology & Geophysics, Coastal & Shelf Research

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 405644
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/405644
ISSN: 0749-0208
PURE UUID: 1a339a11-aa74-4598-afb5-9c05147201d8
ORCID for C.E.L. Thompson: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-1105-6838
ORCID for H. Kassem: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-5936-6037

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Date deposited: 09 Feb 2017 09:40
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 04:16

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Contributors

Author: C.L. Amos
Author: M. Brylinksy
Author: D.L. Forbes
Author: A Robertson
Author: C.E.L. Thompson ORCID iD
Author: H. Kassem ORCID iD

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