title: Study of water mixing in the coastal waters of the western Taiwan Strait based on radium isotopes.
abstract: Radium is considered to be a useful tracer for studying the physical processes of seawater. In this work, three naturally occurring radium isotopes, (224)Raex, (226)Ra and (228)Ra, were measured in the coastal zone of the western Taiwan Strait during the summer seasons. Based on the distributions of the three radium isotopes and the salinity, we conclude that the water mixing pattern in the study area in summer consists of diluted water flowing from the Jiulong River to the open sea towards the east and southeast, and open sea seawater flowing inward from south to north. The submarine ground water discharges in the estuarine region, as suggested by the radium and salinity data. The residence times of the Jiulong River estuary, ranging from 7 to 49 d, were estimated using the radium isotope pairs (224)Raex and (226)Ra.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Marine Isotopic Technology and Environmental Risk Assessment, Third Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Xiamen 361005, PR China. Electronic address: men_wu@126.com.
authors.forename: Wu
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Men
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, PR China.
authors.forename: Yuwu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, PR China.
authors.forename: Guangshan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Marine Isotopic Technology and Environmental Risk Assessment, Third Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Xiamen 361005, PR China.
authors.forename: Fenfen
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Marine Isotopic Technology and Environmental Risk Assessment, Third Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Xiamen 361005, PR China.
authors.forename: Yusheng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D063366:Estuaries; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D011834:Radiation Monitoring; D011883:Radium / Q000032:analysis*; D012623:Seawater / Q000032:analysis*; D014872:Water Movements
chemical_list: D011883:Radium
keywords: Radium isotopes; Residence time; Water mixing