Sediment transport and dispersion in a cool-temperate estuary and embayment, Saco River estuary, Maine, USA

Critical Foraging Habitat of Atlantic Sturgeon Based on Feeding Habits, Prey Distribution, and Movement Patterns in the Saco River Estuary, Maine

“…Study location.-The headwaters of the Saco River originate in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and the river empties into the Atlantic Ocean near the southern boundary of Saco Bay (Brothers et al 2008). Medium to coarse grain sand dominates the sediment composition of the river, which is noted as the main source of sand to the surrounding bay system (Kelley et al 2005;Brothers et al 2008). The Saco River estuary is formed by the Cataract Dam, an impassable barrier for Atlantic Sturgeon, located 10 km upstream from the natural mouth (Reynolds and Casterlin 1985).…”

“…The Saco River estuary is formed by the Cataract Dam, an impassable barrier for Atlantic Sturgeon, located 10 km upstream from the natural mouth (Reynolds and Casterlin 1985). In addition, the mouth of the Saco River is bound by two jetties, which extend the estuary roughly 2.3 km into Saco Bay (Brothers et al 2008).…”

Shoreline Dynamics Along a Developed River Mouth Barrier Island: Multi-Decadal Cycles of Erosion and Event-Driven Mitigation

“…The Merrimack River empties into a drowned river valley that contains extensive tidal flats composed of sand and mud. Sediment discharge (largely sand and fine gravel) is episodic, dominated by high-discharge events associated with the passage of hurricanes and extratropical storms (Hill et al, 2004) and by spring freshets produced by melting snow accompanying high precipitation events (FitzGerald et al, 2002;Brothers et al, 2008). Ebb-dominated bedforms at the inlet and southeasterly oriented sandwaves on the ebb delta indicate seaward and southerly sand transport.…”

Longshore Sediment Transport Directions and Rates from Northern Maine to Tampa Bay, Florida: Literature Compilation and Interpretation

“…Great property losses in the vicinity of the jetty led local people to complain about the structure, which has long since outlived its original industrial purpose and resulted in numerous studies of the sand movement in the bay by ourselves and a number of colleagues. In a series of theses (Barber, 1995;Brothers, 2006;Heinze, 2001;Manthorp, 1995;van Heteren, 1996) and peer-reviewed papers (Brothers et al, 2008;Buynevich, FitzGerald, and van Heteren, 2004;FitzGerald et al, 2000FitzGerald et al, , 2002FitzGerald et al, , 2005Hein et al, 2014;Hill et al, 2004;Kelley and Anderson, 2000;Kelley et al, 2005;Kelley and Brothers, 2009;van Heteren et al, 1996), we established that sand moves in a net northerly direction in the bay. The Army, after performing physical (Bottin, Mize, and Demirbilek, 1995) and numerical (Woods Hole Group Environmental Laboratories, 2006) modeling agreed with our field measurements.…”