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Hydrography and mixing estimates in the Komodo Islands waters, Indonesia

Conference Paper · January 2023

DOI: 10.1063/5.0114099

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RESEARCH ARTICLE | MAY 09 2023

Hydrography and mixing estimates in the Komodo Islands

waters, Indonesia
Adi Purwandana 

AIP Conference Proceedings 2604, 040003 (2023)

https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0114099

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 Hydrography and Mixing Estimates in the Komodo
Islands Waters, Indonesia
Adi Purwandana
Research Center for Oceanography, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Jakarta, Indonesia

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Corresponding author: adip003@brin.go.id

Abstract. Hydrography and mixing properties in the shallow waters of the Komodo National Park waters were
investigated from nearly one tidal cycle CTD profiles. The mixing properties were estimated using an improved Thorpe
method by inspecting instabilities observed in the density profile. Strong semidiurnal M2 tidal driven watermass
dynamics were observed, with a relatively homogenous vertical profile seawater properties. Temperature and salinity
fluctuate from 25 to 28 oC and 34.15 to 34.30 psu, respectively. The pH also fluctuates around 0.1 along with
the periodicity of low and high tide. The oxycline layer was observed at around 10 m depth. The typical mean values
of turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rates and vertical diffusivity were in the order of 10-10-10-8 m2s-3 and 10-6-10-5
m2s-1, respectively. There is an enhancement of chlorophyll-a during the transition period from high/low tide to low/high
tide which is related to intensive dissipation rate and vertical diffusivity.

INTRODUCTION

The Komodo Islands is part of the Indonesian National conservation zone, known as the only habitat for the
endemic giant lizard, Komodo (Varanus komodoensis). The Komodo waters have significant fisheries productivity,
with more than 25,000 tons of fisheries products in 2017 [1]. The Komodo Island waters is also well known as the
center for world cetacean biodiversity and home for more than 700 oceanic fish species [2,3].
Surrounded by deep-sea waters, the Flores Sea on the northern side and Sumba Strait/Indian Ocean on the
southern side, the Komodo Islands waters are characterized by unique oceanography background. From the energetic
aspect, the Komodo Island waters are one of the Indonesian mixing hotspots due to strong barotropic tidal currents
conversion to internal tide (baroclinic tide) from the Indian Ocean when encounters shallowing topography and
narrowing passages in this area [4]. Through numerical modeling, circulation and water mass properties in the
Komodo waters are hypothesized to be under the influence of Indian Ocean via tidal current [5].
Understanding the oceanographic setting of the waters, mainly on the hydrography and mixing properties is
important for biogeochemical aspects as well as for ocean-atmosphere interaction. A well quantified turbulent kinetic
energy dissipation rate and vertical diffusivity, for instance, will help us to estimate the nutrient flux from the lower
layer to the upper layer [6]. A better quantifying mixing properties will help us also to predict seasonal atmospheric
variability such as rainfall structure since mixing phenomenon is responsible for cooling the upper layer of the
ocean [7].
This study presents the analysis of hydrography and mixing aspects in the Komodo Islands waters using the
datasets from the Sail Komodo Expeditions in 2013, which was conducted by Research Center for Oceanography
Indonesian Institute of Sciences (RCO-LIPI). The mixing properties in the Komodo National Park waters were
revealed using the indirect method, i.e. the Thorpe method, which was proved by previous studies are comparable
with direct measurements using microstructure profiler [4,8]. The paper was aimed to reveal the dynamics of
seawater properties as well as estimate the mixing properties i.e. turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) dissipation rate and
vertical eddy diffusivities in the Komodo Island waters.

The 2nd International Symposium on Physics and Applications 2021

AIP Conf. Proc. 2604, 040003-1–040003-7; https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0114099
Published by AIP Publishing. 978-0-7354-4467-6/$30.00

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 METHODS

Datasets

A total of 11 repeated CTD (Conductivity, Temperature, Depth) profiling casts separated by around 2 hours,
sampled during the Sail Komodo Expeditions held by Research Center for Oceanography Indonesian Institute of
Sciences (RCO-LIPI) using Sea-Bird Electronics (SBE) were analyzed to inspect the hydrography aspects and the
mixing properties, i.e. the dissipation rates and vertical eddy diffusivity. The measurements were conducted at a
fixed position; 119.7026 oE, 8.55075 oS on September 18, 2013. The CTD probe was lowered at a maximum rate of
24 Hz and the dataset was processed using the SBE Data Processing module. The temperature and salinity data were
bin-averaged over 0.25 m. Only downcast data used in this study to avoid noise from the CTD frame. The upper 2 m,
which might be noised by the vessel movements, were not considered.

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FIGURE 1 Observation location (reversed red triangle) with topography provided by ETOPO.

Mixing Estimates

The using of density profile derived from temperature and salinity profiles are common to estimate vertical
mixing properties [9,10]. The Thorpe method is based on the identification of overturning water mass parcel
occurred when the higher density parcel laid above the lower one hence driving turbulence in the water column. The
distance of the overturning patch is known as Thorpe displacement (dT). Then, Thorpe length (LT) is defined as the
rms of the Thorpe displacement. The turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) dissipation rates were calculated using an
improved Thorpe method [4]. This improved method was comparable with microstructure measurement. Then, the
TKE dissipation rate is calculated as,

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 2 3
⎧0.64LT N , when there is overturn
⎪
ε = εTh-GM = -10 N2 (1)
⎨ max 1×10 ,ε 0 , when no overturn observed
⎪ N0 2
⎩

LT is the Thorpe length scale, N is the buoyancy frequency, 1×10-10 is the lowest dissipation rate observed by
microstructure measurements in the Indonesian seas, measured in the Banda Sea [11–13]; ɛ0 = 7×10-10 m2 s-3 and N0
= 3 cph are the canonical Garret and Munk dissipation rate and buoyancy frequency reference, respectively. The
turbulent diffusivity is quantified as:

= = (2)

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Hydrography
The Komodo Island waters are characterized by semidiurnal tidal cycle. The tidal height prediction during the
observations is shown in FIGURE 2(a). A clear pattern of tidal driven seawater properties dynamics was observed
from the time series of temperature, salinity, and density anomaly. Nearly homogenous seawater properties were
observed, following the tidal cycle. During low tide, warmer (>26.8 oC) and less saline (<34.25 psu) water dominate
the water column and vice versa, during high tide, colder (<26.8 oC) and more saline (>34.25 psu) water dominate
the water column. Note that since the density anomaly is derived from temperature and salinity, the characteristic of
the density anomaly resembles both profiles, where less dense water mass of <22.2 kg m -3 dominates the water
column during low tide and denser water mass of >22.2 kg m -3 dominates during high tide period. There is no
indication of fresher water in the upper layer. These findings suggest that the Komodo Islands waters perform as
shallow-oceanic waters. A relatively linear relationship between temperature and salinity as shown in FIGURE 3
also concludes this statement.
A slightly different pattern was shown by the dynamics of pH (FIGURE 3(e)). The first period of the high tide
was characterized by high pH of >9.3 while the second period of the high tide was characterized by low pH of <9.25.
In between, i.e. the low tide, it is likely their transition period. We found no clear tidal driven dynamics of the
dissolved oxygen (DO). Yet, the oxycline layer was relatively stable observed at around 5-12 m depth (FIGURE
3(f)).
A fluorometer sensor which was attached to the CTD probe was used to estimate the chlorophyll-a abundance.
Unfortunately, there were no in situ measurements of chlorophyll-a directly using a water sample accompanying the
fluorometer measurements. Yet, present study uses the chlorophyll-a inferred from fluorometer to identify roughly
the temporal dynamics of this biological aspect parameter. As shown in FIGURE 3(g), there is an indication of
chlorophyll-a enhancement during the transition period, i.e. from high tide to low tide and from low tide to high tide.
The relationship of this phenomenon with turbulent mixing dynamics will be examined later.

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FIGURE 2 Time series of (a) tidal height (m) from Indonesian Geospatial Burreau (http://tides.big.go.id/pasut/) at 119.7026 oE,
8.55075 oS, (b) temperature (oC), (c) salinity (psu), (d) density anomaly (kg m-3), (e) pH (f) dissolved oxygen (ml/l) (g)
Fluorescence, Chlorophyll-a (mg m-3). Note that the overlaid contours in (e), (f) and (g) are the density anomaly; intended to show
the tidal periodicity.

Mixing Properties

Vertical instabilities of the water mass profile are generally driven by barotropic to baroclinic tidal current
conversion as the flow encounters shallowing topography and/or narrow passages. Our CTD profiles show a large
number of turbulent events. However, less stratified profile vertically will only produce less TKE dissipation rates in
this area. As shown in FIGURE 3(a), the dissipation rate is dominated by medium-low values of less than 10-8 m2s-3,
and elevated dissipation rates of ~3.2×10-7-3.2×10-6 m2 s-3 only at σθ = 22.3. In general, the dissipation rate in this
waters is higher compared to those observed in the Banda Sea, which is in the order of 10-9 m 2 s -3 [4,12,13,14] yet
around one to two order lower compared to typical near field region, i.e. in straits, such as in the Halmahera Straits
and Ombai Strait [11,14], Lombok Strait [15] and Maluku-Talaud waters [16]. A relatively low dissipation rate in
this shallow/coastal region is related to very low vertical stratification since there was no input of freshwater.
A relatively low vertical diffusivity of less than 3.2×10 -5 m2s-1 dominates the water column with minor elevated
values (see FIGURE 3(b)). The maximum value observed is around 3.2×10 -4 m2s-1. There are elevated values around

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10-5-10-4 m2s-1 in the near-bottom layer (σθ < 22.6), which is strongly related to high bottom shear stress that leads to
turbulence. Table 1 shows the mean and standard deviation of the TKE dissipation rates and vertical diffusivity at
several ranges of density anomaly.

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FIGURE 3 Grid averaged T/S diagram in 0.1 oC x 0.01 psu space of the (a) turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate (in log 10
scale ε, m2s-3) and (b) vertical eddy diffusivity (in log10 scale Kρ, m2s-1).
Table 1 Mean and standard deviation of the dissipation rate (ɛ, m2s-3) and vertical eddy diffusivity (Kρ, m2s-1) for specified density
anomaly range (σθ, kg m-3).

ɛ, m2s-3 Kρ, m2s-1

σθ (kg m-3)
mean stdev mean stdev
21.75-22.00 4.9·10-10 1.5·10-9 1.4·10-5 4.8·10-6
22.00-22.25 2.5·10-9 2.0·10-8 5.2·10-6 1.7·10-5
22.25-22.50 1.5·10-8 1.1·10-7 8.4·10-6 2.9·10-5
22.50-22.75 1.4·10-10 3.0·10-10 4.6·10-5 3.6·10-5

To inspect the temporal variability of the squared buoyancy frequency (~stratification), dissipation rate, and
vertical diffusivity, it has been shown in FIGURE 4 the time series of those profiles. A clear pattern of strong
stratifications greater than 10-2 s-2 follows the uplifting and down lifting of the isopycnal due to internal tide
dynamics (FIGURE 4(a)). Strong buoyancy fluxes can lead to a high dissipation rate (Гε). As shown in FIGURE
4(b), enhanced dissipation rates of greater than 10-9 m2s-3 mimicks the dynamics of strong buoyancy frequency. Yet
the temporal pattern of the vertical diffusivity has different pattern except within the watermass parcels where strong
dissipation rates overcome the stratifications. There is an indication that the elevated dissipation rates and vertical
diffusivity occurred during the tidal transition period from low/high to high/low tides (hour = 4, 8, 12, 20). Such
timing of enhanced mixing properties is likely responsible for the elevated chlorophyll-a values as described
previously.

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FIGURE 4 Time series of (a) squared buoyancy frequency (in log 10 scale, s-2), (b) turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate (in
log10 scale, m2 s-3) and (c) vertical eddy diffusivity (in log10 scale, m2 s-1); with overlaid density anomaly contour lines above.

CONCLUSIONS

The shallow waters of the Komodo Islands waters have typical oceanic coastal waters, characterized by a nearly
homogenous vertical profile of the seawater properties and linear T/S relationship. These waters are strongly
dominated by the semidiurnal internal tide, which flushes water mass vertically as the high tide period comes.
In absence of direct microstructure leads this study to use an improved indirect estimate using the Thorpe
method [4]. The enhancement of the TKE dissipation rates and vertical diffusivities occurred during the tidal
transition periods and might be responsible for the chlorophyll-a abundance. Unfortunately, no current measurements
accompanying the CTD datasets in this study due to ADCP (Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler) sensor failure during
the expeditions. This study encourages further analysis in the future to involve current measurements in order to
characterize the shear variance and water mass instability in this region. From biogeochemical perspectives, nutrient
measurements are also needed to estimate the nutrient flux in the water column to asses the productivity.

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The author thanks the Crew and Captain of the RV Baruna Jaya VIII for helping the data acquisition during the
observations. This project is also funded by the research scheme of Program Riset Unggulan COREMAP CTI 2021-
2022 (17/A/DK/2021).

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