"In the summer flood season, the Changjiang freshwater water splits into two streams at the northern tip of Chongming Island which flow out onto the inner shelf of the ECS through southern and northern branches. In the winter dry season, the Changjiang freshwater water flows into the ECS primarily through the southern branch and a salt-water return flow is frequently observed in the northern branch (quoted from Chen et al. 2005)". This is a complex esturine system characterized by fronts and eddies.
"Harmful algal blooms (‘‘red tides’’) occur primarily in a confined region on the inner shelf off the Changjiang River in the East China Sea during May–August. The areal extent of these blooms has increased dramatically in the last decade, and was associated with 1) the rapid increase in nutrient supply via the Changjiang River, 2) the water transport from the Taiwan Warm Current and 3) enrichment of organic matters in the sediment (see Chen et al. 2003).
As Zhijiang Scholar, Dr. Chen has been collaborating with Dr. Pingxing Ding, Director of the State Key Laboratory for Coastal and Estuarine Research, East China Normal University, on developing an ecosystem model for the Changjiang River Estuary. Dr. Ding is leading the interdsciplinary field measurement in the Changjiang and over the inner shelf of ECS, and the MEDM Laboratory at UMASSD helped them to set up FVCOM system for this region. An integrated ecosystem model has already configured for this river, which includes: a) FVCOM-hydrodynamics, b) 3-D sediment model, c) generalized biological models, etc. We are working on converting SWAN into the unstructured grid finite-volume version. Once this model is developed, a fully integrated Changjiang River model system with advanced data assimilation package will be placed into operation.
In the past, we have focused our modeling experiments on process-oriented studies of this complex system. Some examples are posted here to share with the public. To learn the details, please contact Dr. Chen at c1chen@umassd.edu.
