Analysis of characteristics of time-frequency correlations between runoff, tidal range and salinity in the Changjiang Estuary

Power spectrum and cross-wavelet transform analysis was adopted to study the time-frequency characteristics and multiscale correlations between runoff, tidal range and salinity in the Changjiang Estuary based on the runoff data collected at the Datong Station, the tidal range measured at the Baozhen Station, and the salinity at the Baogang Station from 2008 to 2009. The variations of the salinity showed significant periodicity at scales of 2-3, 7-8, 14-15 and 26-30 d. The correlation between the salinity and the runoff and the tidal range were found to be significantly related to shock at scales of 5-7, 14-15, 26-30 d and 0.5 a. The correlation between the runoff and the salinity was mainly in the same phase, while the correlation between the tidal range and the salinity was in the antiphase. Different frequency bands were related to different degrees, and their relevance increased as the resonance frequency decreased. In addition, changes of the seasonal runoff were obvious. Specifically, a point of discontinuity was reached in early June with a cycle of 7-8 d, which coincided with the periodicity of plum rains in the Changjiang-Huaihe region. High-frequency changes (8-16 d period) of the salinity corresponded to the time domain in January-April 2008, February-April 2009 and October-December 2009 and exhibited an approximately 0.5 a (184 d) long frequency oscillation. Short-period changes were found to be stronger than long-period changes. Cross-wavelet transforms for the salinity, the runoff and the tidal range revealed local features in the time domain, while the significant levels of different periodic oscillations were observed in the frequency domain. The correlation characteristics of the salinity and the runoff were significant in the 80-90 d frequency domain, indicating that the major impact of the runoff on the salinity was reflected in seasonal changes. The tidal range on the small scale of 14-15 and 30-32 d was more obvious than the runoff.