Continental Shelf Research 22 (2002) 521–534

Freshwater input into the coastal ocean and its relation

with the salinity distribution off austral Chile (35–551S)
Paola M. Da! vilaa,*, Dante Figueroab, Erna Muller
. b
a
!
Departamento de Oceanograf!ıa, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanograficas, ! Chile
Universidad de Concepcion,
b
!
Departamento de F!ısica de la Atmosfera !
y el Oceano, !
Facultad de Ciencias F!ısicas y Matematicas, ! Chile
Universidad de Concepcion,

Received 30 December 1999; received in revised form 30 December 2000; accepted 8 February 2001

Abstract

The southern coast of Chile is characterized by high discharge of freshwater into the South Eastern Pacific Ocean.
The latitudinal distributions of the freshwater input through rivers and continental precipitation are here discussed in
relation with the salinity distribution found in the coastal zone. All river basins that discharge into the Pacific Ocean
between 351S and the southernmost part of Chile (ca. 551S) were selected in order to estimate the meridional
distribution of the freshwater input off central-south Chile. Maximum values of the mean annual river discharge were
found at 421S, 461S and 501S with volumes of 2470, 3480 and 3344 m3 s
1, respectively. The total amount of freshwater
obtained between 351S and 551S is 27.8  103 m3 s
1, using the river basin fluxes, and 33.5  103 m3 s
1, using
precipitated water. The seasonal mean salinity anomaly shows basically negative values in summer and positive values
in winter, indicating less (more) salty water in the warm (cold) period. Possible explanations for that are discussed in
terms of seasonal variations of river flow, wind stress and solar radiation. Objective salinity fields were also used to
estimate the effect of the river discharge on the coastal ocean through the fraction of freshwater (Kf ) in the marine
system, calculated with different column thickness. Maximum values of Kf are located at 441S, and from 501S to 541S,
and a minimum Kf is observed at 491S. This last latitude corresponds to a zone of no significant freshwater discharge.
Although the correlation between mean annual freshwater input and salinity at three selected distances offshore (75, 30,
and 10 km) are small, their sign seems to express the physics of the relation. The absolute correlation values increase
towards the shore. In the case of the mean annual salinity distributed at 75 km offshore, significant correlation
coefficients were found at 10 and 50 m depth, while at 10 km offshore a significant correlation was found at
all considered depths, except at the surface. The correlation coefficients of the monthly mean freshwater input and
salinity (both averaged to one degree of latitude), calculated at certain latitudes, show negative correlation values
in the latitude range of 38–421S, although they are not significant except for the case of 401S. r 2002 Elsevier Science
Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Freshwater; Salinity; South Eastern Pacific; Chile (35–541S)

1. Introduction

Large volumes of freshwater input through river

*Corresponding author. discharge and runoff in coastal marine zones,
E-mail address: pdavila@udec.cl (P.M. D!avila). besides marine precipitation, can cause salinity

0278-4343/02/$ - see front matter r 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 2 7 8 - 4 3 4 3 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 0 7 2 - 3
522 !
P.M. Davila et al. / Continental Shelf Research 22 (2002) 521–534
and density anomalies that affect the dynamics of
the coastal circulation (Royer, 1979; Xiong and
Royer, 1984). This is particularly true for regions
having intense precipitation rates. One of these
regions is the South Eastern Pacific Ocean off
austral Chile (Neshyba and Fonseca, 1980), also
one of the less studied zones of the world ocean
(Strub et al., 1998).
Several factors contribute to the existence of
high discharge of river fluxes off Southern Chile.
First, the austral location of this part of South
America makes it to be severely affected by
subpolar low-pressure systems, associated with
high precipitation rates (Romero, 1985). Second,
two north–south chains of mountainsFthe Coast-
al Mountains, and the higher Andes Mountains-
Fact as topographic barriers enhancing the
terrestrial precipitation on their western sides,
contributing to the formation of rivers of pluvial
regimen (Romero, 1985). The high altitude of the
Andes Mountains also benefit the accumulation of
precipitated water in the form of ice and glaciers,
which eventually discharge into the sea through
rivers characterized by nival regimens. On the
other hand, the geomorphology of the southern
coast of Chile is very irregular due to the existence
of a large number of archipelagos and channels.
All these facts transform the southern Chilean
coasts into a very complicated system, where
three kinds of river regimens can be found, i.e.
pluvial, nival and mixed pluvial–nival regimens
(Ferna! ndez and Troncoso, 1984).
Published information concerning the seasonal
behavior of the freshwater in austral Chile is
scarce, as regional studies of the inter-annual
variability of the river flows have usually empha-
sized aspects of the central part of Chile (e.g.
Aceituno and Vidal, 1990). Devynck (1971) shows
that the precipitation pattern between 351S and
431S has a seasonal signal with maximum values
from June to August. South of 431S no seasonal
behavior can be detected.
The effect of the high freshwater input into
the Chilean austral coastal zone has not been
adequately studied. As a consequence, the
dynamics of the circulation along the continental
shelf south of 421S is poorly known, although
there are studies of the interior sea that include the
Chilean austral channels, some lakes and fjords
(Sievers et al., 1993; Sievers and Prado, 1994; Silva
et al., 1995, 1997, 1998). These studies show that
the interior sea is basically formed by a two-layer
structure. Low salinity (due to freshwater dis-
charge, high precipitation rates and coastal runoff)
and a temperature distribution, dependant on the
local radiation conditions, characterize the top
layer. Consequently, these waters have low den-
sity, in the surface layer of 20–30 m thick. On the
other hand, relatively high salinity, low tempera-
ture and high-density water characterize the
bottom layer. The main characteristic of this
two-layer structure is the presence of a sharp
vertical salinity gradient between them with an
offshore flow in the top layer and an inshore flow
at the bottom layer.
Several authors (Silva and Neshyba, 1979;
Neshyba and Fonseca, 1980; Sievers and Nowlin,
1988) have already observed the remarkable,
permanent salinity minimum existing off austral
Chile. It produces a density gradient directed
offshore, normally to the coast, possibly causing
the formation of a coastal baroclinic current. This
current would have similar characteristics to the
Alaska Coastal Current (Royer, 1981, 1983;
Johnson et al., 1988; Kowalick et al., 1994), and/
or to the Norwegian Coastal Current (Mysak and
Schott, 1977; Oey and Chen, 1992), observed off-
shore the Alaska and Norway coasts, respectively.
In spite of the dynamical importance that this
salinity minimum off austral Chile can have, no
attempt has been made to relate it to freshwater
input. The aim of this study is to present
latitudinal distributions of the freshwater entering
into the ocean off austral Chile through rivers and
precipitation data over the continent and to look
for their relation to the salinity there. As shown in
Fig. 1, the study area for the salinity distribution
is located between 351S and 581S of latitude,
and between 701W and 901W of longitude. The
relation between freshwater and salinity is studied
only between 351S and 551S, along three lines at
ca. 75, 30 and 10 km offshore from an idealized
coastline (see Fig. 1). This was done in order to
avoid the influence of very local features such as
fjords and inland seas and to study the variation of
the salinity in the direction offshore the coast.
 !
P.M. Davila et al. / Continental Shelf Research 22 (2002) 521–534
Fig. 1. Study area considered for the salinity distributions. The
solid, point-dashed and dashed lines show the position chosen
for the determination of the latitudinal distribution of both the
annual mean salinity and the freshwater fraction at 75, 30 and
10 km offshore from a smoothed coastline.
2. Methods
In order to estimate the input of freshwater
through river discharges along the coast of central-
south Chile, all the river basins that discharge into
the Pacific Ocean between 351S and 551S were
selected from the Chilean DGA (1987) handbook.
In that study, a simple hydrological budget was
applied to every Chilean river basin between 161S
and 551S in order to obtain terrestrial precipita-
tion, river fluxes, and evaporation. The data
represent a 30-year (1951–1980) period. The river
fluxes correspond to the discharge measured at the
mouth of the rivers. This means that human
activities are already considered in the total river
flux discharge. Some of the rivers ‘‘basins’’ have
more than one point of discharge, as they actually
represent the coastal discharge of several river
basins that, being contiguous and rather small,
were considered together in the evaluation of the
hydrological budget. In this case, the source of
523
freshwater was considered to be a line source in the
corresponding range of latitudes. Finally, another
group of rivers represents the river fluxes coming
from archipelagos or small islands, and may
therefore be considered as coastal runoff.
The freshwater input was also independently
estimated from the pluviometric map of Devynck
(1971), longitudinally integrating bands of one
degree of latitude of the precipitation over the
continent west of the Andes Mountains. This
generated a latitudinal distribution of volume of
water precipitating in the continental part of the
study zone. An alternative estimation of the
freshwater input from precipitation was also
obtained integrating over the river basin areas,
but the results are not significantly different
from the ones obtained just through the zonal
integration.
Concerning the salinity distributions, the objec-
tive salinity fields of Levitus et al. (1994) were used
for the calculation of the seasonal and monthly
anomalies in the study area (35–581S, 70–901W),
with a spatial resolution of one-degree of longitude
and of latitude. In order to avoid the influence
of very local features, such as fjords and inland
seas, latitudinal salinity distributions for the three
curves shown in Fig. 1 were interpolated. These
lines lay 75, 30 and 10 km offshore an idealized
coastline. Salinity data from the Atlas Oceano-
gra! fico de Chile (SHOA, 1996) were also used for
comparisons between salinity and river flow
discharge at certain latitudes.
The salinity of Levitus et al. (1994) was used to
calculate the fraction of freshwater (Kf ) in the
marine system as defined by Blanton and Atkinson
(1983). The relation between Kf and salinity is
inverse meaning that if Kf increases the salinity
diminishes as Kf represents a dilution of salinity
due to the freshwater input, i.e. the volume of
freshwater (in m3) that extends over a water
column of unit area. If D is the depth of the
bottom of the considered water column and S0 is
some base salinity (for example a constant
value of 35) then the freshwater fraction can be
calculated as
Z
S0
S
Kf ¼ dz: ð1Þ
D S0
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P.M. Davila et al. / Continental Shelf Research 22 (2002) 521–534
If the salinity’s profiles are assumed as lineal
function of depth between the surface and the
depth D then the freshwater fraction can be
expressed as
% The annual mean salinity fields in the study area
Kf ¼ S0
1 DðS0
SÞ; ð2Þ
where S% is the mean salinity in the considered
depth range
S% ¼ 12 ðSS þ SD Þ; ð3Þ
where SS and SD are the surface and depth D
salinity, respectively. In this study, the calculations
of Kf were performed according to Eq. (2) whose
goodness was verified calculating the Pearson
correlation coefficient between the salinity profiles
till 50 m depth and their respective linear fits. In the
case of the salinity distributed at 30 km offshore
the coast, values of r > 0:70 with Po0:05 were
observed in 18 of 21 cases (one case for every degree
of latitude) indicating that the assumption is
justified. Similar results were obtained within the
salinity distributed at 75 and 10 km offshore.
Blanton and Atkinson (1983) used Eq. (2) with
a unique depth D of 15 m. In this study, four
different depths D were used (10, 20, 30 and 50 m),
all referred to the surface. In order to make the
results comparable, Kf values were standardized to
10 m depth, dividing Eq. (2) by D and multiplying
it by 10 m.
The standardized freshwater fraction was calcu-
lated along the three lines (75, 30 and 10 km
offshore) shown in Fig. 1. The monthly variations
of the freshwater fraction were also examined.
In order to look for spatial relations, linear
Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated
between the latitudinal distributions of the mean
annual freshwater input and both surface salinity
and freshwater fraction. In the study of seasonal
relations, cross correlation analysis were done
between monthly mean distributions of surface
salinity and freshwater input. This was only
calculated at certain latitudes between 381S and
431S. The reason of choosing this sub-region for
the analysis is that the distributions of the river
flux discharge and the salinity data are more
reliable. The salinity distribution used here was
obtained from the Atlas Oceanogra! fico de Chile
(SHOA, 1996).
3. Results
3.1. Salinity
are shown in Fig. 2 for 0, 10, 20, 30, 50 and 100 m
depth. Every dot in the figure represents a salinity
value from Levitus et al. (1994). The annual mean
value of the surface salinity in the whole study area
is 33.94 psu. This mean value diminishes rapidly if
only areas nearer to the coast are considered. For
example, areas between the coast and 851W, 801W
and 751W have mean surface salinity of 33.87,
33.72, and 33.42 psu, respectively. These values
should be compared with a salinity of 34.35 psu
that corresponds to the zonal mean value of the
surface salinity of the whole Pacific (1501E–701W)
for the latitude range used in this study. It is
apparent from Fig. 2 that during the whole year
two regions of low salinity exist, located in the
coastal zone around 451S and 52–531S. An
horizontal salinity gradient extends offshore,
normal to the coastline, as the salinity increases
from 33.0 psu near the coast up to 33.8 psu
offshore (at 801W). The salinity also increases
with depth. Near the coast, it has values of
33.6 psu at 50 m depth, increasing to 34.0 psu at
100 m depth. The strength of the horizontal
salinity gradient also diminishes with depth,
although a significant gradient is still present at
50 m depth.
In order to analyze the seasonal variability of
the salinity, Fig. 3 shows the seasonal distributions
of the salinity anomaly at 10, 20, 30 and 50 m
depth. During (austral) summer there is a negative
anomaly off the most southern part of continental
Chile (summer water is less salty than the annual
mean), with a sharp gradient directed offshore.
The anomaly diminishes with depth and with the
distance offshore. During fall the anomaly weak-
ens but can still be observed between 481S and
531S, up to 851W offshore. In winter the anomaly
is centered offshore at 821W and 501S, and is
positive, indicating that the water is saltier than its
annual mean. During spring a positive anomaly is
also found near the coast between 481S and 531S.
Fig. 4 shows the latitudinal distribution of the
annual mean salinity along the line lying 75 km
 !
P.M. Davila et al. / Continental Shelf Research 22 (2002) 521–534 525

Salinity (psu) 0m Salinity (psu) 10m offshore (see Fig. 1) at four depths (10, 20, 30 and
50 m), using the data of Levitus et al. (1994). Two
-38 -38 zones of very low salinity are observed around
44–461S and around 52–531S, with values decreas-
ing up to 33.2 at 441S, in the case of 10 m depth.
-43 -43
Relatively high salinity values are found at 491S.
LATITUDE

LATITUDE

This figure also shows a smooth increasing of the

-48 -48 salinity with depth.

-53 -53
3.2. Freshwater fraction (Kf)

Fig. 5 presents the annual mean of the standar-

-58
-90 -85 -80 -75 -70
-58
-90 -85 -80 -75 -70 dized Kf with 10, 20, 30 and 50 m of column
LONGITUDE LONGITUDE thickness obtained for 75 km offshore. Note that
Salinity (psu) 20m Salinity (psu) 30m the horizontal axis is inverted, in order to
emphasize the relation between salinity and fresh-
-38 -38
water fraction. In the case of 10 m depth, maxi-
mum values of Kf are located around 44–451S
and 531S, with magnitudes larger than 0.5 m. A
-43 -43
minimum value around 0.3 m is observed at 491S.
LATITUDE

LATITUDE

The curves of the Kf versus latitude for the four

-48 -48 considered depths are strongly correlated, the Kf
values diminish with depth.
The monthly variability of Kf for each latitude
-53 -53
in the range 35–551S (figure not shown) shows a
maximum freshwater fraction in March, particu-
-58
-90 -85 -80 -75 -70
-58
-90 -85 -80 -75 -70
larly south of 451S, with values larger than 1.0 m
LONGITUDE LONGITUDE south of 501S. The monthly variation of Kf from
351S to 421S is rather smooth, with values in the
Salinity (psu) 50m Salinity (psu) 100m
range of 0.3–0.5 m. Similar results were found at
30 and 10 km offshore with Kf proportionally
-38 -38
larger than those of 75 km offshore.

-43 -43 3.3. Freshwater input estimated from river flows

LATITUDE

LATITUDE

-48 -48
As it was already mentioned, the river flux
data were obtained from DGA (1987). Fig. 6
shows the latitudinal distribution of the freshwater
-53 -53
of every river basin of the study area (filled circles),
annually averaged (note the inverted horizontal
-58 -58
axis). Maximum values of the individual flux
-90 -85 -80 -75 -70 -90 -85 -80 -75 -70
LONGITUDE LONGITUDE discharges were found for rivers lying around
46–471S and between 501S and 521S, with values
Fig. 2. Annual mean salinity distribution at 0, 10, 20, 30, 50
up to 3500 m3 s
1, approximately. A more use-
and 100 m depth. Grid resolution one degree of latitude and one
degree of longitude (Levitus et al., 1994). The isolines have an ful latitudinal distribution of the river fresh-
interval of 0.2. water contribution was obtained by integrating
the river flux discharges in the intervals of one
degree of latitude from 351S to 551S, as shown
526 !
P.M. Davila et al. / Continental Shelf Research 22 (2002) 521–534

Fig. 3. Seasonal salinity mean anomaly distributions for summer, fall, winter, and spring (from top to bottom page) at 10, 20, 30 and
50 m. The isolines have an interval of 0.1. The solid (dashed) line corresponds to positive (negative) anomaly values.
 !
P.M. Davila et al. / Continental Shelf Research 22 (2002) 521–534
Fig. 4. Latitudinal distributions of the annual mean salinity at
10, 20, 30 and 50 m depth 75 km offshore.
Fig. 5. Annual mean latitudinal distribution of the standar-
dized freshwater fraction (Kf ) using 10, 20, 30 and 50 m column
thickness, 75 km offshore. An inverted horizontal axis is used.
527
Fig. 6. Annual mean river discharge of the main river basins
(filled circles) and its integrated values every one degree of
latitude (inverted triangles). An inverted horizontal axis is used.
in the same figure (inverted triangles). In this
case, maximum values of 2470, 3480 and
3344 m3 s
1(1lat)
1 were found at 421S, 461S and
501S, respectively.
In order to show the variability of the fresh-
water during the year, Fig. 7 shows annual
distributions of the three river regimens found in
the study area. Most of the rivers have a pluvial
regimen, characterized by maximum fluxes from
June to August, during the austral winter, and
minimum values from December to March, during
the austral summer (Fig. 7a). The nival regimen
has a maximum freshwater discharge during the
austral summer, when ice melting takes place
(Fig. 7c). Finally, the mixed regimen is character-
ized by high discharges during winter and
summer (Fig. 7b) as both rainfall and ice melting
water influence them. Although it is difficult to
determine the latitudinal extension of the river
regimen domains, this study suggests that in the
study area pluvial, mixed and nival regimens
exist between 35–431S, 43–471S, and 47–541S,
respectively.
528 !
P.M. Davila et al. / Continental Shelf Research 22 (2002) 521–534

Fig. 7. Monthly mean distribution of some rivers off central-south Chile: (a) pluvial regimen, (b) mixed regimen and (c) nival regimen.
Data were extracted from DGA (1987).
 !
P.M. Davila et al. / Continental Shelf Research 22 (2002) 521–534 529

3.4. Freshwater input estimated from precipitation

The freshwater input into the coastal zone was

also estimated from a pluviometric map of Chile
(Devynck, 1971). Integrating the continental part
of the study region, between 37.51S and 521S,
a total freshwater input of 33.6  103 m3 s
1 was
obtained. The independent estimation of the fresh-
water input using the hydrological balance for the
latitudes 35–551S did provide a total amount of
33.5  103 m3 s
1, i.e. a very similar value. On
the other hand, a total of 27.8  103 m3 s
1 of
freshwater input was calculated from the river
fluxes between 351S and 551S.
Fig. 8 shows the latitudinal distributions of the
freshwater input estimated from the pluviometric
map of Devynck (1971), and the corresponding
distributions of both the precipitation and the
freshwater flux calculated from the hydrological
balance (DGA, 1987). Although in this figure the
freshwater input estimated from Devynck (1971)
Fig. 8. Latitudinal distribution of the annual mean precipita-
seems to have less spatial variability than the tion estimated from the pluviometric map of Devynck (1971)
discharges obtained from the hydrological balance (circles) and from the hydrological balance equation of the
method, the total freshwater fluxes obtained using DGA handbook (1987) (squares). The annual mean river flux
both methods are quite similar. estimated from this last source is also shown (triangles). In all
cases data are presented every one degree of latitude. An
inverted horizontal axis is used.
3.5. Correlation between salinity, freshwater and Kf

In Fig. 9, the river flux salinity and the Kf

parameter are shown at 75 km offshore with a
resolution of one degree of latitude. The two last
variables show a similar variability, as they are
closely related. It can be observed that the
minimum freshwater flux observed at 491S coin-
cides with maximum values of salinity and Kf : On
the other hand, the maximum values of freshwater
flux observed at 461S and 501S are also coincident
with the minimum values for salinity and Kf :
The relation between mean annual freshwater
input and salinity at the three selected distances
offshore is shown in Table 1, using the correlation
coefficient (r), the index of correlation (r2 ), the
statistic t and the probability for a valid correla-
tion (P). The number of considered latitude points
is 21 while the t-student value for a two tail
analysis with a 95% confidence level and 19
degrees of freedom is tð0:025; 19Þ ¼ 2:093: According
to Zar (1984), the hypothesis of no-correlation
between salinity and freshwater can be rejected if
jtjXtð0:025; 19Þ : Although the correlation values are
small, their sign seem to express the physics of the
relation. The absolute correlation values increase
to the shore, showing that the freshwater effect in
the salinity is stronger in that direction. In the case
of the mean annual salinity distributed at 75 km
offshore, significant correlation coefficients
(Po0:05) were found at 10 and 50 m depth, with
values of
0.48 (Po0:041) and
0.49 (Po0:04),
respectively. At 30 km offshore, significant correla-
tion was found at 10, 20, and 50 m depth with
values of
0.58 (Po0:012),
0.54 (Po0:019) and

0.55 (Po0:019), respectively. At 10 km offshore,
a significant correlation was found at all consid-
ered depths, except at the surface. The relation
between mean annual freshwater input and Kf at
the three distances offshore is shown in Table 2. As
the relation between the two variables is direct, the
530 !
P.M. Davila et al. / Continental Shelf Research 22 (2002) 521–534

freshwater input and salinity (both averaged to

one degree of latitude) were calculated at certain
latitudes (see Table 3 and Fig. 10). In this case, the
salinity was obtained from the Atlas Oceano-
gra! fico de Chile (SHOA, 1996). The results show
negative correlation values in the latitude range of
38–421S, although they are not significant except
for the case of 401S with a value of
0.78 and
Po0:01: In this case, the t-Student value for a two
tail analysis with a 95% confidence level and
19 degrees of freedom is tð0:025; 10Þ ¼ 2:22: Cross
correlation values were also calculated to see if
there were time lags in the relation between the
variables. The only case where a significant cross
correlation coefficient was found was at 401S
(r ¼
0:65) with a time lag of +1, i.e. the salinity
lying one month behind the freshwater input.

4. Discussion

The seasonal salinity anomaly in the study area

Fig. 9. Annual mean latitudinal distribution of the freshwater
fraction, salinity (at 75 km offshore) and river flux output,
integrated every one degree of latitude.
sign of the correlation is positive. No correlation
with probability values less than 0.05 were found
at 75 or 30 km offshore, although the correlation
values increase towards the coast. Finally, the
correlation coefficients of the monthly mean
shows mainly negative values in summer and
positive in winter, indicating less (more) salty
water in the warm (cold) period. As mentioned
before, the river regimen varies with latitude, from
a winter-centered pluvial regimen in the northern
part of the study area to a mixed and a summer-
centered nival regimen in the southern region. This
means that the maximum freshwater discharge
rates, found south of 501S, belong to zones where
mixed and nival regimens domain exists. The fact
of finding negative anomalies in summer and
positive in winter could be attributed to the type
of river regimens existing in the study zone. It must
also be considered that there must also be a time

Table 1
Correlation between annual mean latitudinal distributions of freshwater and salinity

Depth 75 km offshore 30 km offshore 10 km offshore

(m)
r r2 t P r r2 t P r r2 t P

0
0.14 0.021
0.58 0.569
0.28 0.078
1.17 0.261
0.33 0.11
1.40 0.17
10
0.48 0.234
2.21 0.042
0.58 0.334
2.84 0.012
0.62 0.39
3.20 0.005
20
043 0.181
1.88 0.078
0.54 0.296
2.60 0.019
0.59 0.35
2.95 0.009
30
0.41 0.165
1.78 0.094
0.46 0.214
2.09 0.053
0.50 0.25
2.33 0.03
50
0.49 0.236
2.23 0.041
0.55 0.297
2.60 0.019
0.59 0.35
2.90 0.01
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P.M. Davila et al. / Continental Shelf Research 22 (2002) 521–534 531

Table 2
Correlation between the annual mean latitudinal distributions of freshwater and standardized Kf

Depth (m) 75 km offshore 30 km offshore 10 km offshore

r r2 t P r r2 t P r r2 t P

10 0.33 0.107 1.38 0.186 0.44 0.193 1.95 0.068 0.45 0.20 2.02 0.06
20 0.27 0.070 1.10 0.287 0.38 0.148 1.67 0.115 0.43 0.18 1.92 0.07
30 0.26 0.066 1.06 0.305 0.36 0.129 1.54 0.144 0.42 0.17 1.87 0.08
50 0.29 0.084 1.22 0.241 0.38 0.142 1.63 0.123 0.43 0.18 1.92 0.73

Table 3 should occur in this period. During autumn–

Correlation between freshwater input and salinity (SHOA,
1996) monthly means at selected latitudes
Latitude r r2 t P
381S
0.51 0.26
1.89
391S
0.19 0.037
0.62
401S
0.78 0.61
3.97
411S
0.24 0.06
0.80
421S
0.43 0.018
1.50
lag between the freshwater discharge and its effect
on the salinity distribution.
The relation between the effect of the wind stress
and the salinity distribution has not been studied
here, although some arguments can be presented.
It must be first noted that the meridional drift of
the high pressure system of the Southeast Pacific,
to the south in spring and to the north in autumn
(Saavedra and Foppiano, 1992), is responsible
for the north–south drifting of the zone where
the meridional wind changes its sign. In fact, the
meridional wind stress is northward (southward),
north (south) of this point, where latitude varies
seasonally. The southward wind stress should
induce an eastward Ekman water transport, piling
up freshwater near the coast. However, examining
the oceanic and the coastal winds in the study area
it has been observed that the wind stress is more
intense during spring–summer than during au-
tumn–winter period (Da! vila and Figueroa, in
press). As a consequence of this, the already
mentioned pile up effect of the water should be
more intense in spring–summer than in autumn–
winter. As more freshwater is piled up during
spring–summer, more negative salinity anomalies
winter, on the other hand, the meridional wind
stress weakens, inducing less eastward Ekman
water transport. This could induce positive anom-
aly salinity, as the surface water does not remain
0.087
0.55 so long along the coast as it occurs during spring–
0.002 summer. In fact, Xiong and Royer (1984) observed
0.44 salinity anomalies at the surface layer of the Gulf
0.16 of Alaska that were related mainly to freshwater
discharge, as well as to wind stress, both mechan-
isms inversely related to the salinity.
The solar radiation could also play a role in the
existence of surface low salinity in summer, as it
induces a seasonal thermocline that prevents
vertical mixing. The existence of stratified waters
can also be a consequence of the freshwater input,
inducing the presence of a halocline.
The latitudinal distribution of the freshwater
input estimated from river flows (in this case
without latitudinal averaging) has two points of
maximum outflow around 451S and 501S (Fig. 6).
Both points correspond to coastal discharge areas
that have more than one source of freshwater into
the ocean. When a latitudinal distribution was
calculated for one degree interval of latitude,
maximum values were found at 421S, 461S, and
501S (Fig. 6). The new latitude of maximum
outflow detected at 421S is related to an area of
coastal zone discharge (line source) plus a river
basin with a unique point of freshwater output of
1060 m3 s
1 (the Yelcho River, 42.971S, 72.751W).
The total amount of freshwater estimated from
the DGA hydrological balance resulted very close
to the one obtained from the Devynck pluvio-
metric distribution, although the latitude ranges
are slightly different. The reason for that is that
both latitude ranges include the zone of higher
532 !
P.M. Davila et al. / Continental Shelf Research 22 (2002) 521–534

precipitation, i.e. 38–521S. It means that the areas

Fig. 10. Monthly mean river flux (F) and salinity (.......) from
the Atlas Oceanogr!afico de Chile (SHOA, 1996) between 381S
and 421S.
not covered by the present estimations from
Devynck are zones with relatively small precipita-
tion. If one compares these results with the global
amount of precipitation of 3.5 Sv (Schmitt, 1995),
the precipitation measured in the latitudinal range
considered in this study represents 1.0% of the
global input. The total river flux input in the study
area, 27.8  103 m3 s
1, can also be compared with
the estimation of global river flux input of 1.3 Sv
(Schmitt, 1995). It means that the contribution of
this part of the terrestrial land is ca. 2.1% of the
total world freshwater input. The proportion of
the river flux contribution to the global freshwater
input is larger than the proportion of contribution
of the local precipitation to the global precipita-
tion. It can be caused by the small rate of
evaporation, characteristic of these latitudes, and
the very high precipitation values found in some
locations, up to 7000 mm yr
1 found around
49–511S, near Guarello Island (Devynck, 1971).
These local precipitation values are rather high
if one considers that, for the Northeastern
Pacific ocean, Reed and Elliott (1979) reported
precipitation rates up to 1000 mm yr
1, and
Dorman and Bourke (1979), using weather
stations near the coast, found values up to
1800 mm yr
1.
The correlation found between annual mean
latitudinal distributions of freshwater flux and
both salinity and Kf ; at the three considered
meridional lines (75, 30 and 10 km offshore), shows
that the coefficients increase toward the coast, as
expected, as the influence of the freshwater input
is stronger near the coast. Although the absolute
values of the correlation coefficients are rather
small, they correspond to the physics of the mixing
processes that take place in the study area. On
the other hand, in the case of correlation
between monthly mean distributions of river flux
and salinity, results depend strongly on the
particular latitude considered. In this case, an
inverse relation was also observed, although the
Pearson correlation coefficients were not much
significant.
This study does not consider the precipitation
over the ocean. Although this precipitation could
be another cause for the low salinity values found
 !
P.M. Davila et al. / Continental Shelf Research 22 (2002) 521–534
in this area, its latitudinal variation should be
rather similar to the corresponding meridional
distribution of the freshwater discharge. For this
reason, the rather low correlation found between
the continental freshwater contribution and the
coastal salinity probably do not improve signifi-
cantly taking into account the precipitation over
the ocean. In any case, any future study of
the relation of the salinity and the freshwater
should include the contribution of the marine
precipitation.
5. Conclusions
The freshwater flux entering into the ocean at
the most southern portion of austral Chile is
responsible for the decrease of the surface layer
salinity. This can be established through two ways.
First, the seasonal salinity anomalies observed at
different depths show the influence of the fresh-
water river discharge. The positive and negative
salinity anomalies, present during the summer
and the winter seasons, respectively, indicate the
prevalence of mixed and nival river regimens in the
southernmost portion of the continent. This,
added to the effect of the wind stress and the solar
radiation, can help to establish the salinity
anomalies found for each season. Second, the
Pearson correlation coefficients observed between
the freshwater flux discharge and the salinity
distributed along the coast and at certain distances
from it, show the inverse relation existing between
these two variables. In this case, the absolute
correlation values were not remarkably high,
probably due to the coarse spatial and temporal
distribution of the data used. Besides, all the
calculated correlation coefficients tend to increase
towards the coast and to the surface, establishing a
stronger influence of the freshwater flux on the
salinity field.
The obtained total amount of freshwater be-
tween 351S and 551S is 27.8  103 m3 s
1, using
the river basin fluxes, and 33.5  103 m3 s
1, using
precipitated water. These values are in good
agreement with the magnitude of precipitation
rates observed in other regions of similar char-
533
acteristics to the southern Chile, as the Gulf of
Alaska (Royer, 1979).
Future studies will require systematic measure-
ments (annual series) of river flux discharge at the
river mouths and salinity distributions near the
coast. This will allow to calculate better correla-
tion coefficients between both variables, and to
study some expected consequences of the high
freshwater discharge into the ocean, among them
the possible existence of high-speed coastal bar-
oclinic currents.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Grant
96.012.005-1.0 of the Research Directorate of the
!
University of Concepcion, Chile. During part
of the research one of the authors (PD) was
supported by the Deutsche Akademischer Aus-
tauschdienst (DAAD), and the other (DF) was
supported by the Chilean National Fund for
Advanced Studies in Priority Areas (FONDAP–
Humboldt Program) of CONICYT, Chile.
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