This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-2).

The study will promote understanding of sediment dispersal in estuaries through an investigation of the Delaware River estuary. Coordinated studies of water-column sediment flux, deposition, and resuspension are planned and the PIs hope to establish the sediment trapping efficiency of the estuary as a function of external forcings, including river discharge, tides and wind. An array of instrumented moorings will be deployed to obtain continuous time-series records of flow and suspended-sediment concentration, and a suite of naturally occurring and anthropogenic radionuclides measured seasonally. Specific objectives are: 1) to identify the sources, transport pathways, and residence times of fine sediment based on distributions of 7Be, 210Pb, and 137Cs; 2) to asses the role of channel morphology on along- and across-estuary patterns of sediment transport and deposition using in-situ observations of sediment flux; and 3) to elucidate the mechanisms of sediment flux and trapping responsible for maintaining the estuary turbidity maximum, and which transfer sediment from the axial channel to subtidal flats.

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Ocean Sciences (OCE)
Type
Standard Grant (Standard)
Application #
0928567
Program Officer
Bilal U. Haq
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2009-09-01
Budget End
2013-08-31
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$388,732
Indirect Cost
Name
Rutgers University
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
New Brunswick
State
NJ
Country
United States
Zip Code
08901