Temporal and spatial variability of radium in the coastal ocean and its impact on computation of nearshore cross-shelf mixing rates

Constraining the exchange of water from the shoreline to the mid-shelf is necessary for the development of accurate and predictive models of nearshore circulation. Ra isotopes, which emanate from sediments and have a variety of half-lives, may be useful in measuring cross-shelf mixing rates. The distributions of Ra isotopes were measured in transects extending perpendicular from the shoreline at Sunset Beach and Huntington Beach, CA. The average inventory at Sunset Beach was four times greater than at Huntington Beach. Building on previous research on Ra inputs and circulation in San Pedro Bay, a two-dimensional model for surface water Ra was developed to identify the importance of onshore flow and cross-shelf mixing near Huntington Beach. For the mean summertime conditions, the eddy diffusivity (Kh) was 1.4±0.4 m2 s−1, with 8% of the water from Sunset Beach moving down the coast. The remaining water must be low-Ra water that has moved onshore. At time scales greater than a week, the short-lived Ra inventory at Huntington Beach varied by 50%, which reflects changes in the fractions of water moving down-coast and/or in the longshore advection rate. The shoreline Ra concentration varied on time scales of hours, which may be generated by tidal changes in the Ra input at the shoreline and short-period fluctuations in the mixing rate. The low Kh observed in this study in comparison to higher values measured further offshore is evidence that Kh increases with distance offshore. When scale-dependent mixing beyond 455 m offshore is incorporated into the model, the results are consistent with the observed data for 223Ra, 224Ra, and 228Ra. Using the model, the 228Ra input flux to the summertime mixed layer was between 3.4×106 and 4.0×106 atoms s−1 (m shoreline)−1.