salt-wedge estuary paper published!

Sarah Giddingsnews

Seasonal Changes in Structure and Dynamics in an Urbanized Salt Wedge Estuary” by Maggie McKeon, Alex Horner-Devine, and Sarah Giddings was just published in Estuaries & Coasts. This paper describes hydrographic measurements of a salt-wedge estuary, the Duwamish River Estuary, spanning a 20-fold range in seasonal discharge. The tidal dynamics are well explained by two-layer hydraulic theory, and result in a flood/ebb asymmetry that is modulated seasonally. This is an important result as it suggests that this type of estuary may exhibit a seasonally modulated residual circulation.