Water Exchange Calculations Using the Salt Conservation Law in Ayla Lagoons in the Northern Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea

Riyad Manasrah

doi:10.4236/ns.2015.74023

Home > Journals > Biomedical & Life Sciences | Chemistry & Materials Science > NS

Natural Science > Vol.7 No.4, April 2015

Water Exchange Calculations Using the Salt Conservation Law in Ayla Lagoons in the Northern Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea ()

Riyad Manasrah

Department of Coastal Environment, Faculty of Marine Sciences, The University of Jordan-Aqaba, Aqaba, Jordan.

DOI: 10.4236/ns.2015.74023 PDF HTML XML 2,001 Downloads 2,542 Views Citations

Abstract

The salt conservation law was applied, for the first time, in order to compare the real and calculated values of water outflow (m³/s) and residence time (days) in the lagoons of Ayla Oasis at the northernmost tip of the Gulf of Aqaba. The aim is to obtain the scientific bases of monitoring beside the real observation in areas that could not be measured directly by the current meters. The real measurements of water current by Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) workhorse 600 kHz, salinity and density by the Conductivity, Temperature and Depth meter (CTD 19plusV2), were collected during the period June 2012-May 2013. The statistical analysis was performed using Statview (5.0) software. The results revealed highly significant correlation between the real and calculated values for both water flow (r = 0.90; P = 0.0001) and residence time (r = 0.89; P < 0.0001). Hence, the salt conservation law can be used to calculate the outflow and residence time of seawater inside the lagoons, particularly at areas that could not be accessed for direct current measurements. The differences between the real and calculated values of the water outflow (1.85 ± 1.71 m³/s) and residence time (0.80 ± 0.72 days) should be taken into consideration to correct the calculated values.

Keywords

Salt Conservation Law, Residence Time, Artificial Lagoons, Gulf of Aqaba

Share and Cite:

Manasrah, R. (2015) Water Exchange Calculations Using the Salt Conservation Law in Ayla Lagoons in the Northern Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea. Natural Science, 7, 197-209. doi: 10.4236/ns.2015.74023.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	World Resources Institute (WRI) (2001) Pilot Analysis of Global Ecosystems. Coastal Ecosystems. WRI, USA, 93 pages. http://dbccc.onep.go.th/climate/attachments/article/96/page_coastal.pdf
[2]	UNISDR/UNDP (2012) A Toolkit for Integrating Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation into Ecosystem Management of Coastal and Marine Areas in South Asia. Outcome of the South Asian Consultative Workshop on “Integration of Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation into Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management of Coastal and Marine Areas in SouthAsia”, held in New Delhi on 6 and 7 March 2012. UNDP, New Delhi, 173 pages.
[3]	Wilkinson, C. (2004) Status of Coral Reefs of the World, 2004 (Vol. 1). Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, xiv+301 pp.
[4]	Miththapala, S. (2013) Lagoons and Estuaries. Coastal Ecosystems Series (Vol. 4). vi + 73 pp. IUCN Sri Lanka Country Office, Colombo.
[5]	Sullivan, C. (2005) The Importance of Mangroves. http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00093446/00028/1
[6]	Hutomo, M. and Moosa, M.K. (2005) Indonesian Marine and Coastal Biodiversity: Present Status. Indian Journal of Marine Sciences, 34, 88-97.
[7]	UNESCO (1981) Tenth Report of the Joint Panel on Oceanographic Tables and Standards. UNESCO Technical Papers in Marine Sciences, No. 36.
[8]	Kjerfve, B. (1994) Coastal Lagoon Processes (Elsevier Oceanography Series, 60), 1-8.
[9]	De Wit, R. (2011) Biodiversity of Coastal Lagoon Ecosystems and Their Vulnerability to Global Change. In: Grillo, O. (Ed.), Ecosystems Biodiversity, 29-40. http://www.intechopen.com/books/ecosystems-biodiversity/ biodiversity-of-coastal-lagoon-ecosystems-andtheir-v ulnerability-to-globalchange
[10]	Kennish, M.J. and Paerl, H.W. (2010) Coastal Lagoons Critical Habitats of Environmental Change. In: Kennish, M.J. and Paerl, H.W. (Eds.). Coastal Lagoons: Critical Habitats of Environmental Change (Marine Science Series), CRC Press, Boca Raton, 1-16.
[11]	Björk, M., Short, F., Mcleod, E. and Beer, S. (2008) Managing Seagrasses for Resilience to Climate Change. IUCN, Gland, 56 p.
[12]	Smith, N.P. (1977) Meteorological and Tidal Exchange between Corpus Christi Bay, Texas and the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico. Estuarine and Coastal Marine Science, 5, 511-520. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0302-3524(77)90098-6
[13]	Al-Barakati, A. (2010) Some Hydrographic Features of Rabigh Lagoon along the Eastern Coast of the Red Sea. Journal of King Abdulaziz University-Marine Sciences, 21, 123-132. http://dx.doi.org/10.4197/Mar.21-1.7
[14]	Meshal, A.H. (1987) Hydrography of a Hypersaline Coastal Lagoon in the Red Sea. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 24, 167-175. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0272-7714(87)90063-1
[15]	El-Sayed, M.Kh. (1987) Chemistry of Modern Sediments in Hypersaline Lagoon, North of Jeddah, Red Sea. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 25, 467-480. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0272-7714(87)90038-2
[16]	Loague, K. and Corwin, D.L. (2005) Point and Non-Point Source Pollution. In: Anderson, M.G., Ed., Encyclopedia of Hydrological Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Chichester, 1427-1440.
[17]	Kjerfve, B. and Magill, K.E. (1989) Geographic and Hydrodynamic Characteristics of Shallow Coastal Lagoons. Marine Geology, 88, 187-199. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0025-3227(89)90097-2
[18]	Mangor, K. (2004) Shoreline Management Guidelines. DHI Water & Environment, Hørshølm, Denmark.
[19]	Smith, N.P. (1994) Water, Salt and Heat Balance of Coastal Lagoons. Elsevier Oceanography Series, 60, 69-101.
[20]	Hall, J.K. (1975) Bathymetric Chart of the Straits of Tiran. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences, 24, 69-72.
[21]	Hall, J.K. and Ben-Avraham, Z. (1978) New Bathymetric Map of the Gulf of Eilat (Aqaba). In: The Tenth International Conference on Sedimentol, Vol. 1, Jerusalem, 9-14 July l978, 285 (Abst.).
[22]	Hulings, N.C. (1989) A Review of Marine Science Research in the Gulf of Aqaba. Marine Science Station, Aqaba.
[23]	David, S. and Walter, S. (1996) Global Bathymetric Prediction for Ocean Modeling and Marine Geophysics. http://topex.ucsd.edu/marine_topo/text/
[24]	Wessel, P. and Smith, W. (1996) A Global Self-Consistent, Hierarchical, High-Resolution Shoreline Database. Journal of Geophysical Research, 101, 8741-8743.
[25]	Manasrah, R., Al-Horani, F., Rasheed, M., Al-Rousan, S. and Khalaf, M. (2006) Patterns of Summer Vertical and Horizontal Currents in Coastal Waters of the Northern Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 69, 567-579. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2006.05.024
[26]	UNDEP/IUCN (1988) Coral Reefs of the World. UNEP Regional Seas Directories and Bibliographies. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK/UNEP, Nairobi, Kenya.
[27]	Al-Rousan, S., Rasheed, M., Khalaf, M.A. and Badran, M. (2005) Ecological and Geochemical Characteristics of Bottom Habitats at the Northern Jordanian Coast of the Gulf of Aqaba. Chemistry and Ecology, 21, 227-239. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02757540500211277
[28]	Manasrah, R., Zibdah, M., Al-Ougaily, F., Yusuf, N. and Al-Najjar, T. (2007) Seasonal Changes of Water Properties and Current in the Northernmost Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea. Ocean Science Journal, 42, 103-116. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF03020878
[29]	Badran, M., Manasrah, R. and Rasheed, M. (2006) Sea-Water Seasonal Changes at a Heavy Tourism Investment Site on the Jordanian Northern Coast of the Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea. Chemistry and Ecology, 22, 425-435. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02757540600917344
[30]	Manasrah, R. (2015) Physical Properties and Exchange System of Seawater in Ayla Lagoons in the Northern Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea. Fresenius Environmental Bulletin, 24 (in press).
[31]	Bryden, H.L. and Kinder, T.H. (1991) Recent Progresses in Strait Dynamics. Reviews of Geophysics, 29, 617-631.
[32]	Brenner, S., Rosentroub, Z. and Bishop, Y. (1991) Current Measurements in the Gulf of Elat 1990/91. Report H12/91, Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research, Haifa.
[33]	Price, J.F., Weller, R.A. and Schudlich, R.R. (1987) Wind-Driven Ocean Currents and Ekman Transport. Science, 238, 1534-1538. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.238.4833.1534
[34]	Krauss, W. (1993) Ekman Drift in Homogeneous Water. Journal of Geophysical Research, 98, 20187-20209. http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/93JC01898