SS9.01 Ecosystem Science Practiced in an Urbanized Estuary: South San Francisco Bay Monismith, S, G, Stanford University, Stanford, USA, monismith@stanford.edu   ON THE HYDRODYNAMICS OF SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO BAY: WHY EVERYTHING FROM TIDES TO TURBULENCE MATTERS South San Francisco Bay (SSFB) is a shallow, wind-whipped tidal lagoon that can also behave like a partially mixed estuary, or even in very wet years, a strongly stratified, estuary. Setting the stage for the other talks on SSFB, I will review a set of hydrodynamic processes of ecological significance operant in SSFB ranging from turbulence due to wind wave tidal flow interactions, to stratification dynamics, to large-scale mixing associated with spatial variability in tidal motions. Much of the behavior of the system is determined by its bathymetry, a narrow 10m deep channel cut through wide 2m deep shoals. Wind waves can be important in the shoals whereas stratification can be important in the channel. Finally, while tidal time-scale current variability can be accurately modeled, our understanding of inter-tidal residual flows, especially those associated with buoyancy driven exchanges between SSFB and the rest of San Francisco Bay, is rather limited. This limitation may hinder our ability to predict how SSFB may respond to future changes in freshwater inflows, geometry, or tidal prism that may occur naturally or by human design.   Return to This Session's Schedule     Abstract Search