Boat traffic and resulting wakes are among the major human-mediated stressors on coastal ecosystems. Modulation of sediment transport by wakes and tides in an intertidal waterway with boat traffic is studied here. The hypothesis that boat wakes cause significant increases in sediment transport in intertidal settings is tested. Field observations of tides, currents, boat wakes and turbidity were collected on a transect within the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway in Northeast Florida, USA. Hydrodynamic and sediment processes were evaluated by analyzing this field data set. A daily average of 60 wake events of varying energies were identified in the observations using time-frequency analysis methods. Due to differences in sediment suspension in response to each wake and unpredictable evolution of the bed state, decomposition of the effects of each individual wake on sediment is not possible. Therefore, the sediment dynamics during the periods of boat activity were compared in their entirety with the sediment dynamics during the periods of boat inactivity. Throughout the experiment, all periods of boat activity had consistently greater suspended sediment concentration near the bed compared to their preceding and succeeding periods of boat inactivity. In the first eight days of the experiment where tidal forcing was relatively similar between boat activity and inactivity periods, sediment transport rates were estimated as 0.048 m³/m/hr and 0.043 m³/m/hr during boat activity and inactivity, respectively, indicating a 12% increase in sediment transport due to boat traffic. A larger increase in sediment transport rates during boat activity compared to boat inactivity occurred over the last three days of the experiment. Volumes of sediment transported in low-tide, mid-tide and high-tide during boat activity were greater than their low-tide, mid-tide and high-tide counterparts during boat inactivity. Therefore, the results confirm the earlier mentioned hypothesis.

船只运输和由此产生的尾流是沿海生态系统主要的人为因素。在本文中，研究了潮汐水道中随着船流的尾流和潮汐对泥沙运移的调节。检验了船尾导致潮间带沉积物迁移显着增加的假说。潮汐，水流，船尾和浑浊的现场观测是在美国东北佛罗里达州大西洋内陆水道内的一个样带上收集的。通过分析该现场数据集评估了水动力和沉积过程。使用时频分析方法，在观测中每天平均发现60次不同能量的唤醒事件。由于每次唤醒后沉积物悬浮液的差异以及床层状态的不可预测变化，不可能分解每个尾流对沉积物的影响。因此，将船活动期间的沉积物动力学与船不活动期间的沉积物动力学进行了整体比较。在整个实验过程中，与之前和之后的船只停滞期相比，所有船只活动期在床附近的悬浮泥沙浓度始终较高。在实验的前八天中，船的活动和非活动期间的强迫作用相对相似，沉积物的输送速度估计为0.048 m 在整个实验过程中，与之前和之后的船只不活动时期相比，所有船只活动期间在床附近的悬浮泥沙浓度始终较高。在实验的前八天中，船的活动和非活动期间的强迫作用相对相似，沉积物的输送速度估计为0.048 m 在整个实验过程中，与之前和之后的船只停滞期相比，所有船只活动期在床附近的悬浮泥沙浓度始终较高。在实验的前八天中，船的活动和非活动期间的强迫作用相对相似，沉积物的输送速度估计为0.048 m³ / m / hr和0.043 m ³ / m / hr分别在船只活动和不活动期间表明，由于船只交通，沉积物输送量增加了12％。在实验的最后三天中，与不活动的船只相比，活动期间的泥沙输送速率增加幅度更大。船只不活动时在低潮，中潮和高潮中运输的泥沙量大于其不活动时的低潮，中潮和高潮对应物。因此，结果证实了前面提到的假设。