New York Bight Study. Report 2, Development and Application of a Eutrophication/General Water Quality Model

Abstract : The New York Bight (NYB) Water Quality Model Study was an investigation of the technical feasibility of applying a numerical three- dimensional (3-D) water quality model to assess the impacts of natural and human activities on the NYB. For this study, the NYB consisted of tidally influenced estuaries, harbors, and bays; Long Island Sound; the Apex region between the open waters of the Bight and the harbors/estuaries; and the Bight, which for this study extended from Cape May, New Jersey, northeasterly approximately 550 km along the coastline to Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, and approximately 160 km offshore to the continental shelf. The depth of the study site varied from 3 m to near 900 m seaward toward the continental shelf. The modeling technology recently developed for the Chesapeake Bay was applied to the Bight. This technology consisted of 3-D, time-varying hydrodynamic and water quality models. The model employed a 76 x 45 curvilinear or boundary-fitted, planform grid and 10 stretched (sigma) coordinate layers for the vertical dimension. The summer hypoxia event of 1976 was selected for the water quality model application, where simulations extended from 15 April through 30 September 1976. The model compared relatively well with observations in the Bight and successfully captured the summer hypoxia of 1976. Simulated net plankton, dissolved organic carbon Dissolved oxygen, Models, Nitrogen, Eutrophication, New York Bight