Assessing confinement in coastal lagoons

► Confinement is a biological concept relevant in assessing and managing lagoons. ► Confinement cannot be measured, but it can be defined as a transport time scale. ► We present a first standard methodology for assessment of confinement. ► It can be assessed from the accumulation rate within a lagoo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Marine pollution bulletin 2012-11, Vol.64 (11), p.2391-2398
Main Authors: Canu, Donata Melaku, Solidoro, Cosimo, Umgiesser, Georg, Cucco, Andrea, Ferrarin, Christian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
biological communities
case studies
Climate
coastal water
Confinement
Ecosystem
Environmental Monitoring - methods
Indicators
Italy
Marine
rivers
seasonal variation
Seasons
Seawater
Transitional environments
water pollution
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Summary:► Confinement is a biological concept relevant in assessing and managing lagoons. ► Confinement cannot be measured, but it can be defined as a transport time scale. ► We present a first standard methodology for assessment of confinement. ► It can be assessed from the accumulation rate within a lagoon of a marine tracer. ► The adjoining sea and high frequency forcing should be explicitly included. Measures of transport scale in aquatic systems can contribute to the formulation of definitions of indicators of the system’s ecological properties. This paper addresses confinement, a specific transport scale proposed by biological scientists as a parameter that can capture and synthesize the principal properties that determine the spatial structure of biological communities in transitional environments. Currently, there is no direct experimental measure of confinement. In this study, a methodology based on the accumulation rate within a lagoon of a passive tracer of marine origin is proposed, the influences of different factors in the calculation of confinement are analyzed, and general recommendations are derived. In particular, we analyze the spatial and the temporal variability of confinement and its sensitivity to the seasonal variability of climatic forcing, the inputs from rivers and the parameterization of the tidal exchanges. The Lagoon of Venice is used as a case study.
ISSN:0025-326X
1879-3363
DOI:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2012.08.007