Wind-driven water motions in wetlands with emergent vegetation

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that wind interacting with emergent vegetation in wetlands generates coherent billows that significantly influence water flow and mixing, impacting biogeochemical processes.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence linking wind-induced billows to water flow dynamics and mixing in wetlands with emergent vegetation, supported by spectral analysis and velocity measurements.

Findings

Wind creates billows that dominate momentum transfer into water

Spectral peaks in water and wind velocities are aligned

Wind-driven flow enhances mixing in the wetland water column

Abstract

Wetland biogeochemical transformations are affected by flow and mixing in wetland surface water. We investigate the influence of wind on wetland water flow by simultaneously measuring wind and surface water velocities in an enclosed freshwater wetland during one day of strong-wind conditions. Water velocities are measured using a Volumetric Particle Imager while wind velocities are measured via sonic-anemometer. Our measurements indicate that the wind interacting with the vegetation canopy generates coherent billows and that these billows are the dominant source of momentum into the wetland water column. Spectral analysis of velocity timeseries shows that the spectral peak in water velocity is aligned with the spectral peak of in-canopy wind velocity, and that this peak corresponds with the Kelvin-Helmholtz billow frequency predicted by mixing layer theory. We also observe a strong correlation in the temporal pattern of velocity variance in the air and water, with high variance events having similar timing and duration both above and below the air-water interface. Water-side variance appears coupled with air-side variance at least down to 5 cm, while the theoretical Stokes' solution predicts momentum transfer down to only 2 mm assuming transfer via molecular viscosity alone. This suggests that the wind-driven flow contributed to significant mixing in the wetland water column.