2024 GBA field survey contains three phases: Phase I: Zhenhai Bay land-ocean continuum survey (15th Jun to 19th Jun); Phase II: Coastal groundwater monitoring during spring neap tidal cycle (from 2nd July to 14th July), and Phase III: River water monitoring and sampling in Pearl River networks of GBA (1st July to 31st July).
Phase I: Zhenhai Bay land-ocean continuum survey (15th Jun to 19th Jun)
During this phase, the seawater, river water, aquaculture pond water, sediment porewater were collected to investigate the evolution of multiple chemicals including nutrients, dissolved organic matter, and trace metals from the watershed to the sea.
Phase II: Coastal groundwater monitoring during spring neap tidal cycle (from 2nd July to 14th July)
During phase II, we installed a field monitoring station at a coastal aquifer of Guanghai Bay. The field sampling and monitoring system contains about 6 sampling profiles with different groundwater sampler installed at about 9 depths. Groundwater sample was extracted from the sampling tubes at different tidal phases during a spring-neap tidal cycle. During each sampling, we collected about 40 groundwater samples + 1 seawater samples. Three sediment cores were collected at different locations during the survey. In addition, water pressure transducer was installed to monitoring the change of groundwater table. The sampling and monitoring of this phase intent to investigate the land-ocean chemical interaction through groundwater discharge and tidal fluctuation.
Phase III: River water monitoring and sampling in Pearl River networks of GBA (1st July to 31st July)
In Phase III, water samples from the three stations at the upstream of Xijiang, Beijiang and Dongjiang and 8 river mouths of Pearl River networks were collected with a time interval of 2 days for one month. This study was designed to grasp the comprehensive understanding of chemical delivers through river networks in GBA under high intensity of human activity. The data will be provided to modelers to investigate the influences of chemical deliver from land on marine environment and ecology.
The success of this challenging comprehensive field monitoring and survey is attributed to the active contributions of the PhD, Master, UG students, and research assistants from HKUST(GZ) and HKUST. We would like to show our sincerely gratitude to all the members in this field survey for their excellent teamwork, unwavering dedication, and extraordinary passion for the science.
