Effects of Water Level Fluctuation on Thermal Stratification in a Typical Tributary Bay of Three Gorges Reservoir, China

Authors

Juxiang Jin, Wuhan University
Scott Wells, Portland State UniversityFollow
Defu Liu, Hubei University of TechnologyFollow
Guolu Yang, Wuhan UniversityFollow
Senlin Zhu, Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute, Nanjing, China
Jun Ma, Hubei University of TechnologyFollow
Zhengjian Yang, Hubei University of TechnologyFollow

Sponsor

This work was supported financially by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91647207), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51709096), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51879099), the Natural Science and Technology Major Special Program of China (2016YFC0402204) and the Natural Science and Technology Major Special Program of China (2016YFC0401702). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Published In

PeerJ

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2019

Subjects

Information Management -- Analysis Water, Resources -- Analysis, Rivers -- Analysis, Numerical Analysis -- Analysis

Abstract

Xiangxi River is a typical tributary of Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) in China. Based on field observations in 2010, thermal stratification was significant in most months of the year. Through field data analysis and numerical simulations, the seasonal and spatial variation of thermal stratification as related to the impact of the operation of TGR were investigated. Thermal stratification was most pronounced from April to September in the Xiangxi River tributary. Air temperature (AT) and water level (WL) were the two dominant variables impacting thermal stratification. AT affected the surface water temperature promoting the formation of thermal stratification, and high WLs in TGR deepened the thermocline depth and thermocline bottom depth. These results provide a preliminary description of the seasonal variation and spatial distribution of thermal stratification, which is important for better understanding how thermal stratification affects algae blooms in Xiangxi River.

Description

Copyright 2019 Jin et al. Distributed under Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0

Locate the Document

http://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.6925

DOI

10.7717/peerj.6925

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/28783

Citation Details

Jin, J., Wells, S. A., Liu, D., Yang, G., Zhu, S., Ma, J., & Yang, Z. (2019). Effects of water level fluctuation on thermal stratification in a typical tributary bay of Three Gorges Reservoir, China. PeerJ, 7, e6925.