Synopses & Reviews
Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Coastal and Estuarine Studies, Volume 39.
Coastal regions, and particularly the transition zone between fresh and salt water called estuaries, continue to attract the interest of scientists and governments. In an age of growing awareness of interactive processes affecting the entire planet, those occuring at the frontier between the extensively manipulated continental home of the human race and the once-pristine world ocean merit such continued attention. Estuaries, however, are particularly complicated environments, with cycles of motion that may actually never be repetitive, and each estuary is somewhat different from its neighbours. Since the appearance of "Estuaries" (Lauff, 1967), other, mainly symposium- or workshop-inspired, volumes have been published (e.g. Cronin, 1975; Kennedy, 1980, 1982, 1984; Kjerfve, 1978, 1988; Ketchum, 1983; van de Kreeke, 1986; Wiley, 1976, 1978; Wolfe, 1986). It is difficult, however, to find accounts of the physical, biological, chemical and geological characteristics of individual estuaries all in one place, and large estuaries, such as Chesapeake Bay, Long Island Sound, the Strait of Georgia and the Skagerrak, seem not to have been treated as coherent entities. Nor has the St. Lawrence.
Synopsis
This is the first book for over twenty years on the physical, biological, chemical and geological characteristics of a large-scale estuary. Interdisciplinary, concise and cohesive, it is applicable as a model for worldwide estuary study. From the contents: Mathematical Modeling of Tides in the St. Lawrence Estuary.- Fronts and Mesoscale Features in the St. Lawrence Estuary.- Nearshore Sediment Dynamics in the St. Lawrence Estuary.- Organic Geochemical Studies in the St. Lawrence Estuary.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1. The St Lawrence Estuary: Introduction
Mohammed I. El-Sabh and Norman Silverberg 1
Why this book ? 1
Historical notes 2
A large estuary 4
Contents of the volume 6
Chapter 2. Mathematical Modelling of Tides in the StLawrence Estuary
Mohammed I. El-Sabh and Tad. S. Murty 10
Introduction 10
Tidal characteristics of the St. Lawrence Estuary 12
Barotropic models 17
Baroclinic models 39
Conclusions 45
Chapter 3. Meteorologically and Buoyancy Induced Subtidal Salinity and Velocity
Variations in the St Lawrence Estuary
Kim-TaiTee 51
Introduction 52
Field observation and data analysis 54
The meteorological and buoyancy forcing 54
The meteorologically induced variations 57
The buoyancy induced variations 64
Summary and conclusions 68
Chapter 4. Fronts and Mesoscale Features in the St Lawrence Estuary
R. Grant Ingram and Mohammed I. El-Sabh 71
Introduction 71
Upper Estuary 74
Lower Estuary 78
The Gaspe Current 85
Conclusions 88
Chapter 5. Topographic Waves and Topographically Induced Motions in the St Lawrence Estuary
Gordon Mertz and Yves Gratton 94
Introduction 94
Internal waves 96
Internal tides and upwelling 98
Vorticity waves 102
Conclusions 106
Chapter 6. Recent Sediments and Sediment Transport Processes in the St Lawrence Estuary
Bruno d'Anglejan 109
Introduction 109
Physiography 110
Late glacial and Holocene history. 112
Quaternary stratigraphy 114
Distribution of surficial sediments 115
Suspended sediment dynamics and composition 118
Sediment mass balance 124
Summary and conclusions 125
Chapter 7. Nearshore Sediment Dynamics in the St. Lawrence Estuary
Georges Drapeau 130
Introduction 130
General setting 132
Mechanisms of nearshore sediment dynamics 135
Long term trends: erosional and accretional shorelines 147
Summary and conclusions 149
Chapter 8. Reactivity and transport of nutrients and metals in the St Lawrence Estuary
P A. Yeats 155
Introduction 155
Nutrients 157
Trace metals 159
Metal transport 164
Comparison to other estuaries 165
Chapter 9. Organic Geochemical Studies in the St Lawrence Estuary
J V. Gearing and R. Pocklington 170
Introduction 170
Annual cycles of organic matter 172
Stable isotope ratios 179
Molecular tracers 184
Summary 195
Chapter 10. Sediment-Water Interaction and Early Diagenesis in the Laurentian Trough
Norman Silverberg and Bj0rn Sundby 202
Introduction 202
Diagenesis in the Laurentian Trough 205
Manganese, a case study in diagenesis 224
Considerations for future research 233
Chapter 11. Chemical Contaminants in the St Lawrence Estuary and Saguenay Fjord
D. Cossa 239
Introduction 240
Metals 240
Organics 255
Conclusions 262
Chapter 12. Oceanography and Ecology of Phytoplankton in the St Lawrence Estuary
Jean-Claude Therriault, Louis Legendre and Serge Demers 269
Introduction 270
Environmental control of phytoplankton biomass and production 270
Regional divisions of the St. Lawrence Estuary 281
Chapter 13. Zooplankton of the St Lawrence Estuary: The Imprint of Physical Processes
on its Composition and Distribution
J.A. Runge and Y. Simard 296
Introduction 297
Results and discussion 300
Chapter 14. Ichthyoplankton Communities in the St Lawrence Estuary: Composition and Dynamics
Yves de Lafontaine 321
Introduction 321
Physical zonation of the estuary 323
Species composition 324
Spatial distribution 329
Temporal variability 336
Conclusions 338
Chapter 15. The Macrobenthic Fauna of the St Lawrence Estuary
Bruno Vincent 344
Introduction 344
The intertidal zone 345
The Infralittoral zone 349
The ciicalittoral and bathyal zones 350
Concluding remarks 352
Chapter 16. Marine Fisheries Resources and Oceanography of the St Lawrence Estuary
Jacques A. Gagni and Michael Sinclair 358
Introduction 358
The commercial fisheries 359
Importance of the St. Lawrence Estuary on fisheries fluctuations downstream 368
Chapter 17. The Saguenay Fiord: A Major Tributary to the St Lawrence Estuary
C.T. Schqfer , J.N. Smith and R. Cotd 378
Introduction 378
Watermass sources and circulation 383
Impact of power dams 389
Sedimentary processes 390
Pollution history and impacts 404
Biological considerations 407
Summary 414
Chapter 18. The St Lawrence Estuary: Concluding Remarks
Norman Silverberg and Mohammed I. El-Sabh 421
For the St. Lawrence Estuary, large-scale means variety 421
Future considerations 428
List of Contributors 430
Subject Index 432