Sedimentary framework of the modern Huanghe (Yellow River) delta

The geometry, stratigraphy, and structure of recently deposited Huanghe (Yellow River) Delta sediments were examined by high resolution subbottom profiles and medium-penetration boomer profiles. The results indicate that the active (post-1976) subaqueous delta advances as a single thin localized lobe with a maximum thickness of only 15 m. Calculations of sediment volumes indicate that 90% or more of the sediment supplied by the Huanghe remains within 30 km of the mouth. Sediment on the delta platform near the mouth is fine sand; elsewhere silts and clays prevail.[/p]     

The subaqueous delta of the modern Huanghe (Yellow River)

The subaqueous delta of the Huanghe (Yellow River) has been studied using high-resolution acoustic systems. There are many subtle variations in sea floor morphology and sediment geometries; smooth, featureless areas are rare. The main components of the subaqueous delta include broad, shallow channels; moderately disturbed areas with near-surface cut and fill structures; heavily disturbed areas with sea floor depressions, pits, and gullies; and a smooth, gently sloping distal delta apron or rise. These features are not directly related to sediment settling from dilute surface plumes but are due to gravity-driven hyperpycnal underflows, submarine mass movements, and silt flows.     

Modern sediment characteristics and accumulation rates from the delta front to prodelta of the Yellow River (Huanghe)

Since 1976, the main channel of the Yellow River (Huanghe) has been on the east side of the delta complex, and the river has prograded a broad new delta lobe in Laizhou Bay of the Bohai Sea. In 2012, extensive bathymetric and high-resolution seismic profiles were conducted and sediment cores were collected off the new delta lobe. This study examined delta sedimentation and morphology along a profile across the modern subaqueous Yellow River delta and into Laizhou Bay, by analyzing sediment radionuclides (¹³⁷Cs, ²¹⁰Pb and ⁷Be), sedimentary structure, grain-size composition, organic carbon content, and morphological changes between 1976 and 2012. The change in the bathymetric profile, longitudinal to the river’s course, reveals subaqueous delta progradation during this period. The subbottom boundary between the new delta lobe sediment and the older seafloor sediment (before the 1976 course shift) was identified in terms of lithology and radionuclide distributions, and recognized as a downlap surface in the seismic record. The accumulation rate of the new delta lobe sediment is estimated to be 5–18.6 cm year^–1 on the delta front slope, 2 cm year^–1 at the toe of the slope, and 1–2 cm year^–1 in the shelf areas of Laizhou Bay. Sediment facies also change offshore, from alternations of gray and brown sediment in the proximal area to gray bioturbated fine sediment in the distal area. Based on ⁷Be distribution, the shorter-term deposition rate was at least 20 cm year^–1 in the delta front.     

Short period internal waves over the Huanghe (Yellow River) delta front

Internal waves with periods of about 5 minutes and trough to crest heights of up to 6.2 m were observed acoustically over the actively accreting delta front of the Huanghe (Yellow River) in the western portion of the Gulf of Bohai, Peoples Republic of China. The radian frequency of the internal waves was close to the locally-observed Brunt-Vaisala frequency. Through the relatively short (one hour) duration of an internal wave train, the amplitude was observed to decrease progressively with time. These internal waves may cause resuspension of delta-front sediments.     

Sediment transport off the Huanghe (Yellow River) delta and in the adjacent Bohai Sea in winter and seasonal comparison

Based on the data on the current velocity, water temperature, salinity, turbidity and concentration of suspended sediment collected in November 2006 along three survey transects at three time-series, ship-based stations off the Huanghe (Yellow River) delta, and at twenty-four grid survey stations in the adjacent Bohai Sea, sediment transport off the Huanghe delta and in the adjacent Bohai Sea under winter regime were studied and compared with those from the summer season.     

Active slope failure,sediment collapse,and silt flows on the modern subaqueous Huanghe (Yellow River) delta

Post-depositional slope instability and bottom mass-movement processes strongly modify the progradational subaqueous slopes of the modern Huanghe (Yellow River) Delta. Wide, shallow gullies dissect the submarine slopes with gradients of 0.3 to 0.4°. Lower delta-front sediments experiencein situ subsidence, forming numerous collapse depressions. These processes are pronounced over much of the delta, incising and redistributing the most recently deposited silt-rich sediment. Principal causative factors include low sediment strengths created by rapid deposition in the delta during annual peak discharges from the river and severe bottom perturbations by surface storm-generated waves.     

Hyperpycnal plumes and plume fronts over the Huanghe (Yellow River) delta front

The Huanghe (Yellow River) discharges extremely high suspended sediment concentrations (25 to 220 g/l) which favor sustained hyperpycnal plumes (underflows). Observations of weakly hyperpycnal unchannelized plumes and indirect evidence of strongly hyperpycnal channelized underflows over the delta front indicate the importance of these modes of sediment dispersal. The weakly hyperpycnal plumes occupy the entire water column over the shallow (<5 m) delta top. From a pronounced front near the break in slope at about 5 m depth, they descend over the delta-front slope as wide-spread underflows. Evidence of strongly hyperpycnal underflows was shown from subaqueous valleys partly filled with low-density mud.     

黄河口潮滩泥沙絮凝研究

本文基于现场观测的絮团粒径、悬沙浓度及水动力数据,研究了黄河口南部潮滩泥沙絮凝特征。研究发现,黄河口潮滩絮团粒径在25.42～264.44 μm之间,平均为95.20 μm。水体紊动对黄河口潮滩絮凝的影响存在差异,紊动对絮凝促进作用的上限约为G_l=3.76 s⁻¹。紊动强度低于G_l时,紊动促进泥沙絮凝,絮团粒径随紊动加强而增大;反之水体紊动对絮凝主要起抑制作用,絮团粒径随紊动强度增大而减小。悬沙浓度对黄河口潮滩泥沙絮凝起抑制作用,同等紊动条件下高悬沙浓度对应的絮团粒径更小。黄河口潮滩絮团有效密度与粒径呈现负相关关系,沉速主要受粒径影响。本研究补充了对弱潮河口潮滩泥沙絮凝特性的认识。     

南黄海辐射沙脊群潮汐水道的悬沙输运特征

根据南黄海辐射沙脊群定点站位的流速和浊度数据,利用通量分解方法,分析了潮汐水道的悬沙输运特征和输运机制。结果表明,辐射沙脊群海域潮汐水道中潮流为往复流,悬沙浓度较高,属于强潮流控制的悬沙浓度相对较高的陆架浅海环境;悬沙输运主要受欧拉余流和潮汐捕捉效应控制,再悬浮的沉积物通过平流作用进行输运。其中,陈家坞槽和西洋水道的悬沙输运以潮汐捕捉效应占优,沉积物向潮汐水道外输运,处于冲刷状态;苦水洋水道以欧拉余流输运为主,水道内的再悬浮的沉积物在强潮流作用下向陆输运,主要堆积在蒋家沙和西洋西侧岸滩等浅滩和潮间带上。由此可见,在陆源物质供应减少背景下,南黄海辐射沙脊群内部的物质充当了新的物源,短期内能够维持近岸潮滩和沙脊的持续增长。     

Modeling of suspended sediment transport with waveinduced longshore current in Huanghe (Yellow) River Delta

A three-dimensional suspended sediment model(SED)developed by the present authors is coupled with the combinatorial model of COHERENS(Luyten et al.,1999) (the three-dimensional coupled hydrodynamical-ecological model for Regional and Shelf Seas) and SWAN(Holthuijsen et al.,2004) (the third generation wave model).SWAN is regarded as a subroutine of COHERENS and gets time-and space-varying current velocity and surface elevation from COHERENS.COHERENS gets time-and space-varying wave relevant parameters provided by SWAN.Effects of wave on current are applied in bottom shear stress,wave-induced depth-dependent radiation stress and surface drag coefficient calculation.At the same time,the damping function of suspended sediment on turbulence is introduced into COHERENS.So the sediment model SED has feed back on circulation model COHERENS.The SED obtains current as sociated parameters from COHERENS.Then a couple dhydrodynamic-sediment model COHERENS-SED being able to account for interaction between wave and current is obtained.COHERENS-SED is adopted to simulate three-dimensional suspended sediment transport in the Huanghe River delta.In terms of simulation results,there is obvious diffierence between top and bottom layer of wave-induced longshore current.The values of time series of sediment concentration gotten by COHERENS-SED have,generally,an accepted agreement extent with measurement.Significant wave heights and wave periods obtained by COHERENS-SED show that wave simulation case with current’s effect can give better agreement extent with measurement than case without current’s effect.In the meantime,suspended sediment concentration distributing rule obtained by COHERENS-SED is similar to former researches and measurement.     

Distribution and transport of suspended sediments off the Yellow River (Huanghe) mouth and the nearby Bohai Sea

Hydrological and sedimentological investigations were carried out off the Yellow River (Huanghe) mouth and the nearby Bohai Sea during August–September 2007 to examine the distribution and transport of suspended sediments. Our data witnessed that suspended sediments from the Yellow River mouth primarily extend southerly and southeasterly during the flood season. High suspended sediment concentration (SSC) occurs as turbid plume on both sides of the river mouth, where it can reach >20 mg l^?1 in the surface water and >40 mg l^?1 in the bottom water. Accordingly, salinity varies from 25 to 29 psu, mean grain size (Dmz) is >200 μm, and volume concentration (VC) is >100 μl l^?1. High SSC was concentrated in the river mouth area as two muddy patches, i.e. the North Mud and South Mud, consisting mostly of fine-grained silt and clayey silt sediments. Our results have verified the larger extent of the South Mud than that of the North one, implicating south- and southeastward sediment dispersal paths that prevail near the river mouth area. The existing anti-clockwise and clockwise flows in the river mouth area were synthesized as the major hydrodynamics responsible for forming the two muddy patches. Tidal and residual currents are considered as the key hydrodynamic factors controlling the sediment distribution and transport in the region.     

黄河口海域调水调沙期间大型底栖生物群落特性研究

黄河口海域大型底栖生物群落结构受到包括自然和人为在内的诸多因子的影响,本次研究以2011年调水调沙活动对该海域大型底栖生物群落结构的影响研究为主,分析其短期内群落结构的变化。调水调沙前、中、后期均采用同样的站位取样,分别为1～18号站位,按照距离黄河入海口的距离分为4个梯级,为5、10、20和40km。研究结果显示：调水调沙前、中、后期分别渔获大型底栖生物73,72和85种,重要种的数量分别为13,1和16种;所有种类可以统计为4个门类,为环节动物、软体动物、节肢动物和棘皮动物,其中,环节动物和软体动物占比重最大,而1982年其他学者对莱州湾大型底栖生物的研究显示,棘皮动物和环节动物占比重最大,这表明近30年该海域大型底栖生物的群落结构产生较大变化;BOPA指数显示,前期各站位水质较高,中期和后期分别有2,3个站位受到中等程度污染;ABC曲线分析说明,调水调沙中、后期,大型底栖生物群落受扰动较大;群落聚类分析和冗余分析（RDA）表明,大型底栖生物群落结构与环境因子关系密切,其中,调水调沙中期有机物对群落结构的影响最大,而后期的较大影响因子为水深。环境因子并不是单一作用于生物群落,而是几个环境因子共同作用,包括有机物、硫化物、重金属Hg和As等;不同环境因子造成群落结构变动的原因较多,其一可能是海水透明度的下降造成大型底栖生物的生长和繁殖受阻。本次研究重点表明,人类多元活动从短期和长期看对大型底栖生物的群落结构变动影响均较大,调水调沙活动对黄河口海域大型底栖生物的栖息地作用明显,改变其水温、盐度、群落扰动等。因此,应当加强对该海域入海陆源污染物的控制,加强对海洋生态平衡的保护。     

黄河调水调沙影响下河口入海泥沙扩散及沉积效应

基于2013年黄河调水调沙期间四条断面连续25h的温度、盐度、含沙量资料,分析了黄河调水调沙影响下河口入海水沙的扩散的范围。结合2010年调水调沙期间(7月)和调水调沙前后(5、9月)黄河口底质沉积物粒度的变化特征,探讨了黄河调水调沙工程对黄河输沙的影响以及河口沉积效应。结果表明:调水调沙期间,入海泥沙以粗颗粒为主,快速沉积在河口口门附近,扩散范围有限,而河口冲淡水则能够扩散至离岸较远的距离,入海水沙扩散范围不一致。黄河口沿岸悬浮泥沙主要向东北及偏东北方向扩散,最大通量可达2000kg/cm/s,但在距离河口10km以外区域通量锐减。黄河调水调沙期间,入海沉积物源由调水调沙前期粗颗粒的河床沉积物转变为后期小浪底水库排放的细颗粒沉积物,沉积物在河口附近快速堆积,导致河口区沉积环境短期内急剧改变。     

人类活动和自然演变共同驱动下黄河三角洲海域潮波及物质输运变化

在海堤建设等人类活动和三角洲蚀淤等自然演变的共同作用下,黄河三角洲岸线水深近年来发生了剧烈变化,同时也将引起邻近海域潮波系统及物质输运路径的重要变化。本文基于FVCOM数值模式,建立了黄河三角洲及邻近海域三维高分辨率潮汐、潮流及拉格朗日粒子追踪数值模型。通过与环渤海长期验潮站的潮汐调和常数、黄河三角洲临时潮位站和测流站的实测资料对比,模型结果验证良好,能较好反映黄河三角洲及邻近海域潮汐、潮流运动特征,并获得了2019年M₂分潮无潮点位置。通过设置1980年、2019年黄河三角洲岸线自然演变、海堤建设及相应水深地形变化的5个数值实验,结果表明：在人类活动与自然演变共同驱动下,黄河三角洲海域的M₂分潮无潮点向东南方向移动,主要影响因素为水深。黄河口向海延伸和海堤丁坝建设导致的岸线变化,对无潮点位置影响较小,但在该凸出岸段两侧形成余流流涡,使得黄河入海物质在莱州湾内停留时间变长,向渤海输运扩散的时间推迟。     

Contribution of waves and currents to sediment resuspension in the Yellow River Delta

The objective of this study was to investigate that the effects of different hydrodynamic conditions on sediment resuspension on a tidal mudflat in the Yellow River Estuary. A field experiment was conducted on an intertidal flat of the Yellow River Delta, China. The sediment resuspension concentrations and hydrodynamic conditions were obtained in the field from September 2–7, 2013. The resuspended sediment concentrations induced by wave loading were compared with those induced by coupled wave–current actions in Yellow River Delta. The results were as follows: (1) when the wave height was higher than 10?cm and the shear stress induced by the waves was greater than the critical stress of the seabed sediments, the surface seabed was eroded and sediment was resuspended. In addition, 60% of the significant wave heights were larger than 10?cm on the intertidal flat of the Yellow River Delta. (2) The contribution of waves to sediment resuspension was greater than 30% when the significant wave height is higher than 10?cm, and the average contribution of waves to sediment resuspension was 51%. The mechanism of wave-induced sediment resuspension and processes of sediment resuspension were described in this paper.     

黄河三角洲潮滩高浓度悬浮沉积物的控制因素

黄河口潮滩以其悬浮沉积物浓度高而闻名。但是,目前对其高浓度悬浮沉积物的控制因素和来源的了解尚不清晰。因此,本文基于黄河口潮滩上为期7天的水动力(水深,波高和水流速度)和悬浮沉积物浓度观测,对黄河口潮滩不同海况下悬浮沉积物的控制因素和来源进行分析。数据显示,在大部分时间里,黄河口潮滩处于1级海况下(波高小于0.1m),SSC的变化范围为0.1-3.5 g/L,潮流的沉积物输运为悬浮沉积物的主要来源。但是,当水动力作用增强并且导致海底发生大规模侵蚀时,再悬浮沉积物成为了悬浮沉积物的主要来源,水体中的悬浮沉积物浓度可达到17.3 g/L。我们发现悬浮泥沙通量主要受平流输运的控制,而波浪引起的切应力也可通过影响悬浮泥沙浓度影响悬浮泥沙通量的变化。在观测期间, 1级海况下,流致再悬浮沉积物浓度(RSC)大于波致RSC。与此相反,在2级海况下,波致RSC大于流致RSC,例如,在观测期间出现的单个波浪事件导致6小时内海床被侵蚀了11.8 cm。该研究揭示了河控河流三角洲潮滩附近高悬浮沉积物浓度的不同控制因素,并有助于我们更好地了解三角洲的沉积和侵蚀机制。     

黄河干流有机碳的时空分布特征

通过2003-2009年多个航次对黄河干流DOC(溶解有机碳)和POC(颗粒有机碳))及相关参数的调查研究,结果表明:TSS(颗粒悬浮物)为91.42～8188 mg/L,POC为0.65～24.20 mg/L,POC%(POC/TSS×100%)为0.44%～2.21%,DOC为1.57～4.77 mg/L,有机碳沿程分布具有明显的空间特征.花园口水文年调查中有机碳含量与流量的季节变化密切相关.POC主要受冲刷影响,而DOC在不同季节分别体现出冲刷、稀释或浓缩效应.修建水库和调水调沙这2个显著的人为干扰活动对黄河有机碳的性质及输运产生了截然不同的影响:库区自生源对有机碳的贡献明显大于干流,DOC/POC为6.64～12.00,DOC是有机碳的主要形式,同时水库截流,颗粒物沉降降低了颗粒有机碳的输运量,而调水调沙却加强了有机碳的输运,该时期DOC/POC为0.01～0.47,POC是有机碳输运的主导形态.     

Numerical simulation of sediment lifted by waves and transported by tidal currents

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黄河口滨海区冲淤演变与潮流不对称

涨落潮不对称是河口滨海区流场的重要特征,在泥沙输运和地貌演变过程中扮演着重要的角色.本文基于实测水深地形、沉积物粒度、水文泥沙观测等资料,分析了黄河口滨海区的冲淤变化、泥沙输运和沉积物特征.同时,本文利用Delft 3D模型模拟了黄河口滨海区的流场,并计算了不同条件下涨落潮流速的不对称分布,结合上述分析,探讨了黄河口滨...