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The Importance of Offshore Exchange for Water Temperatures in Norwalk Harbor

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Abstract

The Norwalk Harbor is the estuarine portion of the Norwalk River, which connects to Long Island Sound. Like many embayments, this macrotidal harbor experiences higher summer water temperatures than waters farther offshore, which contribute to water quality problems. The summer season is characterized by surface heating, strong tides (as in all seasons), weak winds, and low river discharge. To determine the relative importance of exchange with offshore waters in regulating the harbor temperature, a control volume approach is used to make a summer temperature budget for the harbor based on observations. Time series of harbor temperature, surface heat flux, and Norwalk River inflow are constrained with measurements of water temperatures, atmospheric conditions, and river discharge. The impact of offshore exchange is inferred as the residual after the real temperature change in the harbor, and all other sources of temperature change are constrained. The analysis indicates that, in the summer, the impact of offshore exchange is comparable to the impact of the surface heat flux and far greater than the impact of the river. Consequently, the harbor is much cooler during summer than it would be if it was not connected to Long Island Sound. The methods applied here are applicable to any relatively small, semi-enclosed body of water and do not require the use of models or velocity observations. It is likely that many other embayments have an appreciable degree of thermal buffering via exchange with offshore waters.

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Acknowledgements

Observations were collected with the help of Yan Jia and Kay Howard-Strobel at UCONN, Joe Schnierlein of the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk, and Jerry Toni and Steve DeMarco at the Norwalk Seaport Association. Jim Rose of the Norwalk Seaport Association provided logistical support.

Funding

This study was supported by NSF grant 0955967 (Physical Oceanography) “CAREER: The Influence of Distributed River Inputs and Coastal Embayments on Dynamics in Large Estuaries” and by Connecticut Sea Grant (R/EM-2) “Modeling Vibrio parahaemolyticus Outbreaks in Commercial Shellfish Areas in Western Long Island Sound: Research Linking Local Environmental Factors and Uptake by Oysters.” Additional support came from pre-doctoral awards funded by UCONN Department of Marine Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut, 1080 Shennecossett Rd, Groton, CT, 06340, USA

    Christina M. Menniti, Michael M. Whitney & Steven R. Deignan-Schmidt

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  1. Christina M. Menniti
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Correspondence to Christina M. Menniti.

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Communicated by Arnoldo Valle-Levinson

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Menniti, C.M., Whitney, M.M. & Deignan-Schmidt, S.R. The Importance of Offshore Exchange for Water Temperatures in Norwalk Harbor. Estuaries and Coasts 43, 787–800 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-020-00710-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-020-00710-7

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