Liverpool Bay: a coastal sea's responses to winds, waves, tides and freshwater

Abstract

Liverpool Bay, in the eastern Irish Sea, is a shallow shelf sea heavily impacted by humans. As a Region of Freshwater Influence (ROFI), fed by a number of rivers, including the Dee, Mersey and Ribble, each with flows up to 600 m3 s−1, Liverpool Bay is host to large horizontal and vertical gradients. Although this region has been studied intensively by a number of groups, gaps in the understanding of the dynamics remain, which is evident in the accuracy of numerical models. Using data from the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory Coastal Observatory (Figure 1), the structure of Liverpool Bay is examined. Just over two years worth of moorings data, CTD transects, wind and wave measurements, river flows from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, and Met Office model predictions are used to test current theories and locate deficiencies