On total turbulent energy and the passive and active role of buoyancy in turbulent momentum and mass transfer

Measurements of turbulent fluctuations of horizontal and vertical components of velocity, salinity and suspended particulate matter are presented. Turbulent Prandtl numbers are found to increase with stratification and to become larger than 1. Consequently, the vertical turbulent mass transport is suppressed by buoyancy forces, before the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) and vertical turbulent momentum exchange are inhibited. With increasing stratification, the buoyancy fluxes do not cease, instead they become countergradient. We find that buoyantly driven motions play an active role in the transfer of mass. This is in agreement with trends derived from Monin–Obukhov scaling. For positive Richardson flux numbers (Ri(f)), the log velocity profile in the near-bed layer requires correction with a drag reduction. For negative Ri(f), the log velocity profile should be corrected with a drag increase, with increasing |Ri(f)|. This highlights the active role played by buoyancy in momentum transfer and the production of TKE. However, the data do not appear to entirely follow Monin–Obukhov scaling. This is consistent with the notion that the turbulence field is not in equilibrium. The large stratification results in the decay of turbulence and countergradient buoyancy fluxes act to restore equilibrium in the energy budget. This implies that there is a finite adjustment timescale of the turbulence field to changes in velocity shear and density stratification. The energy transfers associated with the source and sink function of the buoyancy flux can be modeled with the concept of total turbulent energy.