Satellite features of river plumes over the Lobos–Tuxpan reef system

Meteorological data obtained from June to September 2005 to 2011 were used to analyze the dispersion of the Tecolutla, Cazones, and Tuxpan river plumes over the Lobos–Tuxpan reef system, one of the largest reef areas of the western Gulf of Mexico. The highest rainfall and river discharges in the area are observed during the summer season and September. The results suggest that the river's plumes can reach the Tuxpan reef under coastal winds blowing northward, inducing a coastal current flowing in the same direction. The river's plume gets dispersed around the Lobos–Tuxpan reef area (50 km away) due to the influence of an anticyclonic gyre, thus the plumes are classified as far-field plumes. The Kelvin numbers associated with the rivers are small, which allows the direction of the plumes to go northward, despite Coriolis dynamics. The rivers influence produce eutrophication, > 0.3 mg/m 3 of chlorophyll- a , mainly around the Tuxpan reef cluster, but further north over the Lobos reef cluster, oligotrophic conditions prevail with chlorophyll- a concentrations below 0.15 mg/m 3 . Turbid waters from the rivers’ plumes, obtained from the diffuse attenuation coefficient at 490 nm, reached the Tuxpan reef area with 0.1–0.2 m −1 . This pattern was different during September when the rivers reached the entire area (Lobos and Tuxpan cluster), showing values ranging from 0.05 to 0.10 m −1 . Correlation between the sea surface temperature, chlorophyll- a , and turbidity at the river´s mouths with the reef areas also suggest the river's influence at this location. This study could help future ecological studies investigating the relationship between the environment and the biological systems over the Lobos–Tuxpan reef system.