Abstract

In this review, it was tried to summarize the long term turbidity trends in various environments around the world. It was found that there was a decreasing trend in water clarity for Baltic Sea, Dutch Wadden Sea, Black Sea, Adriatic Sea, Japanese coasts due to eutrophication, rapid industrialization, anthropogenic input, etc. throughout 1900s and when those effects were diminished as maintained in Norwegian and North Atlantic coasts by the introduction of waste treatment plants and the improvement of sewage systems, an increasing trend was obtained. Moreover, clear oceanic water intrusion into near shore regions also resulted in an increase in water clarity as seen in the coasts of Southern California. On the other hand, since coasts of Wales, UK consisted of inorganic sediments, rather than anthropogenic effects, wind was tested as the reason of turbidity by comparing with clear Spanish coasts and it was concluded that long term turbidity could be driven by long term local wind however wind could not cause turbidity without suspended particles in water.

Keywords: Turbidity; Water clarity; Suspended particles; Anthropogenic effects; Wind