Between River and Sea: What Control a Daily Variation of Physicochemical Properties of Estuary?

Abstract

Article InfoPhysico-chemical features are among important factor that contributes to the variability of the estuarine environment. This study has been conducted to assess diurnal fluctuations of some physicochemical features in relation to tides in the surface water of Terengganu river estuary. The three stations were set al.,ong the area which linked the river to the coastal water where salinity, temperature, dissolved Oxygen, pH, TSS, chlorophyll-a, Phosphate and silicate nutrients were measured at the surface water for every 2 hrs over a period of 12 hrs during spring tide of September 2012. The salinity changes were found to follow the tidal rhythm, while the daily variation of the remaining feature were found to be more pronounced than the tidal induced variation.With exception to salinity, gradual increases in all features were observed during the day tides, which generally, decreased from afternoon and early morning. The effect of tidal amplitude which said to be important in determining the extent of variation was more pronounced at lower estuary. The remaining stations were observed to be strongly influenced by the river flow.