Water column light attenuation in Danshuei River Estuary, Taiwan

The penetration of sunlight into the water column plays a critical role in the aquatic ecosystem. This study investigates light attenuation through the water column of the Danshuei River estuary and explores the models for quantifying it. The measurement of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR)...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the American Water Resources Association 2005-04, Vol.41 (2), p.425-435
Main Authors: Liu, W.C, Hsu, M.H, Chen, S.Y, Wu, C.R, Kuo, A.Y
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brackish
Danshuei River estuary
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
estuaries
Exact sciences and technology
Freshwater
Hydrology
Hydrology. Hydrogeology
light attenuation
light penetration
linear models
Marine and continental quaternary
photosynthetically active radiation
regression analysis
salinity
Secchi depth
solar radiation
Surficial geology
suspended sediment
total suspended solids
turbidity
water quality
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The penetration of sunlight into the water column plays a critical role in the aquatic ecosystem. This study investigates light attenuation through the water column of the Danshuei River estuary and explores the models for quantifying it. The measurement of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) indicates that the conventional exponential attenuation of light with depth is a very good model. A light attenuation coefficient may be derived from the PAR measurements at each location. The simpler measurements of Secchi depth (SD) provide an approximate estimate of the attenuation coefficients through an inverse linear relationship. The results also reveal that the amount and kinds of materials, which are either dissolved or suspended in the water, control light attenuation through the water column. However, the linear regression with such a model results in very poor correlation, and a relatively large constant term for the Danshuei River estuary. The regression with salinity yields a good correlation, indicating that the fraction of sea water might be a good parameter for estimating light attenuation coefficient for practical application in the Danshuei River estuary.
ISSN:1093-474X
1752-1688
DOI:10.1111/j.1752-1688.2005.tb03746.x