title: A model study of the effects of river discharges and winds on hypoxia in summer in the Pearl River Estuary.
abstract: The deterioration of dissolved oxygen conditions in the Pearl River Estuary (PRE) in summer has recently attracted considerable-scientific and political-attention. This paper documents the development, calibration, and verification of a coupled three-dimensional hydrodynamic and water quality model for the PRE. A comparison of the model's performance against field observations indicated that the model is capable of reproducing key hydrodynamic and water quality characteristics of the estuary within an acceptable range of accuracy. Furthermore, a scenario analysis showed that the extent of the hypoxic zone responds differently to changes in the river discharge at different inlets. Moreover, the hypoxic zone also changes in response to variations in the southwest wind in summer; specifically, a larger hypoxic zone develops as southwest winds blow in a more southward direction. However, the hypoxic conditions are much more sensitive to changes in the wind speed than changes in the wind direction.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Science, Guangzhou 510301, China.
authors.forename: Xing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Science, Guangzhou 510301, China.
authors.forename: Haigang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhan
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Research Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower, Guangzhou 510610, China.
authors.forename: Peitong
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Science, Guangzhou 510301, China. Electronic address: caisq@scsio.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Shuqun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cai
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D063366:Estuaries; D057446:Hydrodynamics; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010100:Oxygen / Q000032:analysis*; D045483:Rivers / Q000737:chemistry*; D012621:Seasons; D060753:Water Quality; D014919:Wind
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: Hypoxia; Monsoon; Numerical model; Pearl River Estuary; River discharge