Mechanisms of Mid- to Outer-Shelf Transport of Shoreline-Released Tracers

Abstract

Transport of shoreline-released tracer from the surfzone across the shelf can be affected by a variety of physical processes from wind-driven to submesoscale, with implications for shoreline contaminant dilution and larval dispersion. Here, a high-resolution wave–current coupled model that resolves the surfzone and receives realistic oceanic and atmospheric forcing is used to simulate dye representing shoreline-released untreated wastewater in the San Diego–Tijuana region. Surfzone and shelf alongshore dye transports are primarily driven by obliquely incident wave breaking and alongshore pressure gradients, respectively. At the midshelf to outer-shelf (MS–OS) boundary (25-m depth), defined as a mean streamline, along-boundary density gradients are persistent, dye is surface enhanced and time and alongshelf patchy. Using baroclinic and along-boundary perturbation dye transports, two cross-shore dye exchange velocities are estimated and related to physical processes. Barotropic and baroclinic tides cannot explain the modeled cross-shore transport. The baroclinic exchange velocity is consistent with the wind-driven Ekman transport. The perturbation exchange velocity is elevated for alongshore dye and cross-shore velocity length scales < 1 km (within the submesoscale) and stronger alongshore density gradient ∂ρ/∂y variability, indicating that alongfront geostrophic flows induce offshore transport. This elevated ∂ρ/∂y is linked to convergent northward surface along-shelf currents (likely due to regional bathymetry), suggesting deformation frontogenesis. Both surfzone and shelf processes influence offshore transport of shoreline-released tracers with key parameters of surfzone and shelf alongcoast currents and alongshelf winds.