Mixing and Turbulence in a Flooding Coastal River

Rivers serve as one of the primary linkages allowing the transfer of dissolved and suspended materials and nutrients across the land margin and into the coastal ocean. Since the early work on estuarine dynamics (see, for example, Pritchard 1952, 1954; Hansen and Rattray 1965), vertical mixing, largely driven by bottom stress, has been known to be an important control on the flux of dissolved substances through its action on vertical stratification. Upstream of the estuarine zone, the effects of stratification are much diminished, and vertical mixing becomes even more effective in controlling the vertical flux of dissolved and suspended substances and especially in maintaining the suspended sediment load.
Pub in Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, v139 n12 p1213-1222, December 2013.