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| Titel |
Resuspension and estuarine nutrient cycling: insights from the Neuse River Estuary |
| VerfasserIn |
D. R. Corbett |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| ISSN |
1726-4170
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| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: Biogeosciences ; 7, no. 10 ; Nr. 7, no. 10 (2010-10-26), S.3289-3300 |
| Datensatznummer |
250005024
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/bg-7-3289-2010.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
For at least the past several decades, North Carolina's Neuse River Estuary
(NRE) has been subject to water quality problems relating to increased
eutrophication. Research initiated in the past several years have addressed
the nutrient processes of the water column and the passive diffusion
processes of the benthic sedimentary environment. Resuspension of bottom
sediments, by bioturbation, tides, or winds, may also have a significant
effect on the flux of nutrients in an estuarine system These processes can
result in the advective transport of sediment porewater, rich with nitrogen,
phosphorus and carbon, into the water column. Thus, estimates of nutrient
and carbon inputs from the sediments may be too low.
This study focused on the potential change in bottom water nutrient
concentrations associated with measured resuspension events. Previous
research used short-lived radionuclides and meteorological data to
characterize the sediment dynamics of the benthic system of the estuary.
These techniques in conjunction with the presented porewater inventories
allowed evaluation of the depth to which sediments have been disturbed and
the advective flux of nutrients to the water column. The largest removal
episode occurred in the lower NRE as the result of a wind event and was
estimated that the top 2.2 cm of sediment and corresponding porewater were
removed. NH4+ advective flux (resuspended) was 2 to 6 times
greater than simply diffusion. Phosphate fluxes were estimated to be 15
times greater than the benthic diffusive flux. Bottom water conditions with
elevated NH4+ and PO43− indicate that nutrients stored
in the sediments continue to play an important role in overall water quality
and this study suggests that the advective flux of nutrients to the water
column is critical to understand estuarine nutrient cycling. |
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