Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Freshwater Composition And Connectivity Of The Connecticut River Plume During Ambient Flood Tides, Michael M. Whitney, Yan Jia, Kelly L. Cole, Daniel G. Macdonald, Kimberly D. Huguenard

Civil Engineering Faculty Scholarship

The Connecticut River plume interacts with the strong tidal currents of the ambient receiving waters in eastern Long Island Sound. The plume formed during ambient flood tides is studied as an example of tidal river plumes entering into energetic ambient tidal environments in estuaries or continental shelves. Conservative passive freshwater tracers within a high-resolution nested hydrodynamic model are applied to determine how source waters from different parts of the tidal cycle contribute to plume composition and interact with bounding plume fronts. The connection to source waters can be cut off only under low-discharge conditions, when tides reverse surface flow through …