Essential concepts, applications, and methods of estimation
“Age” is a hydrodynamic transport time scale commonly used to characterize the time elapsed between release of a substance (e.g., a pollutant) into a water body and its arrival at a location of concern (Shen and Haas, 2004). Parcels and particles may be released from origin regions as well as from point sources; therefore, in addition to the definition provided above, age has also been defined as the time elapsed since a parcel or particle left the region in which its age is prescribed to be zero (Delhez et al., 1999; Deleersnijder et al., 2001). As the time taken by a parcel since entering a water body to reach location x, age is commonly considered the complement to “residence time,” if residence time is defined as the time taken by a water parcel originating at x...
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Andutta, F. P., Ridd, P. V., and Wolanski, E., 2013. The age and the flushing time of the Great Barrier Reef waters. Continental Shelf Research, 53, 11–19.
Banas, N. S., and Hickey, B. M., 2005. Mapping exchange and residence time in a model of Willapa Bay, Washington, a branching, macrotidal estuary. Journal of Geophysical Research, 110, C11011.
Banas, N. S., Hickey, B. M., Newton, J. A., and Ruesink, J. L., 2007. Tidal exchange, bivalve grazing, and patterns of primary production in Willapa Bay, Washington, USA. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 341, 123–139.
Bolin, B., and Rodhe, H., 1973. A note on the concepts of age distribution and transit time in natural reservoirs. Tellus, 25, 58–62.
de Brye, B., de Brauwere, A., Gourgue, O., Delhez, E. J. M., and Deleersnijder, E., 2012. Water renewal timescales in the Scheldt Estuary. Journal of Marine Systems, 94, 74–86.
Deleersnijder, E., Campin, J.-M., and Delhez, E. J. M., 2001. The concept of age in marine modelling I. Theory and preliminary model results. Journal of Marine Systems, 28, 229–267.
Delhez, E. J. M., and Deleersnijder, E., 2002. The concept of age in marine modelling II. Concentration distribution function in the English Channel and the North Sea. Journal of Marine Systems, 31, 279–297.
Delhez, E. J. M., and Wolk, F., 2013. Diagnosis of the transport of adsorbed material in the Scheldt estuary: a proof of concept. Journal of Marine Systems, 128, 17–26.
Delhez, E. J. M., Campin, J.-M., Hirst, A. C., and Deleersnijder, E., 1999. Toward a general theory of the age in ocean modelling. Ocean Modelling, 1, 17–27.
Delhez, E. J. M., Deleersnijder, E., Mouchet, A., and Beckers, J.-M., 2003. A note on the age of radioactive tracers. Journal of Marine Systems, 38, 277–286.
DeVries, T., and Primeau, F., 2010. An improved method for estimating water-mass ventilation age from radiocarbon data. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 295, 367–378.
Haine, T. W. N., and Hall, T. M., 2002. A generalized transport theory: water-mass composition and age. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 32, 1932–1946.
Kratzer, C. R., and Biagtan, R. N., 1997. Determination of Travel Times in the Lower San Joaquin River Basin, California, from Dye-Tracer Studies During 1994–1995. U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 97–4081.
Lucas, L. V., Thompson, J. K., and Brown, L. R., 2009. Why are diverse relationships observed between phytoplankton biomass and transport time? Limnology and Oceanography, 54(1), 381–390.
Monsen, N. E., Cloern, J. E., Lucas, L. V., and Monismith, S. G., 2002. A comment on the use of flushing time, residence time, and age as transport time scales. Limnology and Oceanography, 47(5), 1545–1553.
Mouchet, A., and Deleersnijder, E., 2008. The leaky funnel model, a metaphor of the ventilation of the World Ocean as simulated in an OGCM. Tellus, 60A, 761–774.
Sheldon, J. E., and Alber, M., 2002. A comparison of residence time calculations using simple compartment models of the Altamaha River Estuary, Georgia. Estuaries, 25(6B), 1304–1317.
Shen, J., and Haas, L., 2004. Calculating age and residence time in the tidal York River using three-dimensional model experiments. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 61, 449–461.
Takeoka, H., 1984. Fundamental concepts of exchange and transport time scales in a coastal sea. Continental Shelf Research, 3(3), 311–326.
Xu, B.-C., Dimova, N. T., Zhao, L., Jiang, X.-Y., and Yu, Z.-G., 2013. Determination of water ages and flushing rates using short-lived radium isotopes in large estuarine system, the Yangtze River Estuary, China. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 121–122, 61–68.
Zimmerman, J. T. F., 1976. Mixing and flushing of tidal embayments in the western Dutch Wadden Sea part I: distribution of salinity and calculation of mixing time scales. Netherlands Journal of Sea Research, 10(2), 149–191.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this entry
Cite this entry
Lucas, L.V. (2016). Age. In: Kennish, M.J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Estuaries. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8801-4_200
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8801-4_200
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-8800-7
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-8801-4
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences