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Wave-driven sediment mobility on the Eastern Brazilian shelf under different weather systems

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Abstract

On micro-tidal continental shelves, waves have been considered the main mechanism responsible for bottom sediment resuspension. In order to study the wave-driven sediment mobility under different weather systems on the Espírito Santo Continental Shelf, located on the Eastern Brazilian shelf, the wave-driven bottom shear stresses were compared to the critical bottom shear stress. While the first was calculated from results obtained by the SWAN wave model, the latter considered the heterogeneity of the sediment grain size. The results showed that waves driven by the local action of Transient Systems and waves driven by remote influence of these systems associated with the local influence of South Atlantic Subtropical Anticyclone are responsible for the highest percentages of sediment mobility on the shelf. These waves are characterized by mean wave direction from the south and southeast, with increased significant wave height and peak periods. Moreover, these waves were associated with higher bottom shear stresses than waves from north, northeast, and east (CM1 and CM4), with the highest differences occurring on the middle and outer shelf, mainly to the south of the Doce River mouth. The spatial distribution of the grain size also strongly influenced sediment mobility patterns, delimiting a less energetic region between the Espírito Santo Bay mouth and the Costa das Algas Marine Protected Area southern limit, and a more energetic region between Costa das Algas Marine Protected Area southern limit and the northern limit of the study area. The findings herein, besides providing information relevant to marine environment management, highlight the importance of including the grain size spatial heterogeneity in studies of sediment resuspension on continental shelves.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Oceanographic Instrumentation Laboratory (LIOc-COPPE) for providing the computational infrastructure for carrying out some of the simulations.

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Funding

The first, third, and fourth authors were financially supported by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES). The research was financially supported by FAPES (N° 014-2013/PPE - Gerenciamento Costeiro/PELD-Abrolhos) and FAPES/VALE/FAPERJ (N° 01/2015 - Pelotização, Meio Ambiente e Logística).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Oceanografia e Ecologia, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Oceanografia Ambiental, Universidade Federal do Espirito Santo, Vitória, ES, Brazil

    Kyssyanne Samihra Santos Oliveira, Valéria da Silva Quaresma, Fernanda Vedoato Vieira & Alex Cardoso Bastos

  2. Programa de Engenharia Oceânica - PEnO/COPPE, Engenharia Oceânica, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

    Izabel Christina Martins Nogueira

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  1. Kyssyanne Samihra Santos Oliveira
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  2. Valéria da Silva Quaresma
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Oliveira, K.S.S., da Silva Quaresma, V., Nogueira, I.C.M. et al. Wave-driven sediment mobility on the Eastern Brazilian shelf under different weather systems. Geo-Mar Lett 41, 28 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00367-021-00699-3

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