Seawater exchange and residence time in gamak bay determined by numerical experiments

Abstract

We conducted modeling experiments to evaluate the residence times and exchange rates of seawater in Gamak Bay, located on the southern coast of the Korean Peninsula. The results revealed that pollutants are more quickly dispersed in a fixed grid rather than in a variable grid system. Pollutant concentrations decayed exponentially with time after release near the mouth of the bay, whereas no exponential variations were seen at the northwest end of the bay. The mean exchange rate of the seawater was 1.58% per day in the variable grid system, and the residence time of pollutants was greater than 288 days in Gamak Bay. Conversely, the exchange rate of seawater in Gamak Bay, as revealed by the particle tracking method, was 65% over a 50-day simulation. The results suggest that the seawater exchange in Gamak Bay is so low that pollutants are likely to remain in the bay indefinitely. © The Korean Society of Fisheries and Aquatic Science.