BG4.2

The UK and Scottish Governments have committed to improve and preserve marine habitats including protecting 10% of Scottish waters through the creation of new Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs). Within these commitments, an innovative management perspective was introduced where areas are proposed for protection based on their blue carbon value.  Understanding the physical properties of these environments and establishing evidence for their vulnerability to human impacts is therefore becoming increasingly important. This research identifies “blue carbon hotspots” in the Firth of Clyde. The Firth of Clyde is a sheltered fjord on the west coast of Scotland which has been fundamental to Scottish industry and fishing for hundreds of years. In this study, the vulnerability of these marine carbon stores from direct seabed disturbances is investigated to highlight areas most at risk of carbon loss due to human impacts. Elemental analysis of surface sediment samples were used to identify “blue carbon hotspots” across the basin. Furthermore, the carbon stored in different sediment types was determined using particle size analysis combined with existing broad-scale mapping of this region.  Thermogravimetric analysis indicated the stability of organic carbon within marine sediment providing a useful assessment of the quality of the carbon present. The impacts of benthic fishing (indicated by VMS data) were used to assess the existing pressures on these blue carbon stores together with MPA mapping and environmental properties (such as bathymetry and sedimentology). Mapping results produced in this research can be used in policy and decision making for the prioritisation of protecting blue carbon alongside other designation criteria for the protection of marine habitats in Scotland. Growing recognition of the climate benefits from protecting long-term natural carbon stores mean these findings can be integrated to highlight a blue carbon climate service in addition to implications for local and national management of marine habitats.

How to cite: Grant, R. and Austin, W. E.: The quantity and quality of organic matter in the sediments of the Firth of Clyde: A new tool to assess the vulnerability of “blue carbon hotspots” in Scotland’s inshore waters., EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-3170, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-3170, 2022.

Shelf and coastal seas hold vast quantities of sedimentary carbon, which if left undisturbed, will contribute towards long-term carbon and underpin natural ocean climate services. It is estimated that within the UK exclusive economic zone, 524 Mt of organic carbon is stored within sediments (Smeaton et al., 2021). However, the stability and potential vulnerability of this key component of global natural capital remains poorly quantified, particularly under anthropogenic stressors, such as benthic fishing activity. Benthic trawling activity is the most significant cause of anthropogenic disturbance to the seabed, leading to massive sediment resuspension events and wide scale impact to benthic communities. The impacts of trawling on benthic ecosystems and communities are well reported within the literature (e.g. Hughes et al., 2014); however, a knowledge gap remains regarding the impact of trawl-induced disturbance events on sedimentary carbon stores.

In order to improve our understanding of the areas where sedimentary carbon is potentially at greatest risk from trawling events, we have developed a carbon vulnerability ranking to signify the areas of the seabed where preventative protection would be most beneficial to help maintain our current carbon stocks while further research continues to shed light on the fate of carbon after trawling (e.g. carbon remineralization, transport, and consumption etc.). These maps have been modelled within GIS via fuzzy set theory by making use of currently available fishing intensity, carbon and sediment distribution, and sediment lability datasets (ICES, 2014; Smeaton et al., 2021).

Our results show that the fjordic west coast of Scotland represents one of the key areas where sedimentary carbon is highlighted as being potentially at risk from bottom trawling. This is largely due to the high lability of the sediments as a function of both sediment type and the elevated organic carbon content present within these sediments. In addition, higher occurrences of repetitive trawling activity within inshore waters may add to these pressures. Our research shows that these organic carbon hotspots are potentially at risk of disturbance from benthic trawling activity and should be prioritized for future safeguarding measures to ensure avoided emissions are minimized and to protect this natural carbon capital resource.

References

Hughes, K.M., Kaiser, M.J., Jennings, S., McConnaughey, R.A., Pitcher, R., Hilborn, R., Amoroso, R.O., Collie, J., Hiddink, J.G., Parma, A.M., Rijnsdorp, A., 2014. Investigating the effects of mobile bottom fishing on benthic biota: A systematic review protocol. Environ. Evid. 3. https://doi.org/10.1186/2047-2382-3-23

ICES, 2014. OSPAR request on mapping of bottom fishing intensity using VMS data, Special request, Advice September 2014.

Smeaton, C., Hunt, C.A., Turrell, W.R., Austin, W.E.N., 2021. Marine Sedimentary Carbon Stocks of the United Kingdom’s Exclusive Economic Zone. Front. Earth Sci. 9, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2021.593324

How to cite: Black, K., Smeaton, C., and Austin, W.: Assessing the Potential Vulnerability of Sedimentary Carbon Stores to Benthic Trawling within the UK EEZ, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-103, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-103, 2022.

Annually, continental shelf sediments bury an estimated 137 Mt of organic carbon (OC) making these sedimentary systems an integral component of the global carbon (C) cycle. Within continental shelfs individual sedimentary environments can range between inshore fjord to offshore non-deltaic settings each vastly differing in their ability to trap and lock away OC. Of these different environments fjord sediments have been shown to be hotspot for the burial and storage of OC burying and estimate 18 Mt OC yr^-1, which equates to ~11% of all marine C burial (Smith et al., 2015). In Scotland, the postglacial sediments of the mid-latitude fjords are estimated to store 252 ± 62 Mt OC (Smeaton et al., 2017) with a further 84,000 tonnes of OC being trapped and stored each year (Smeaton et al., 2021). It is clear that fjord sediments are an integral element of the global C cycle and could potentially be crucial long-term climate mitigation. Yet these systems do not exists in isolation and how these system interact with other marine sedimentary systems remains an open question.  

Current research is largely focused on the close interactions between fjord sediments and the terrestrial environment (Cui et al., 2016; Smeaton and Austin, 2017) but recent research in Scotland and Norway has indicated the marine environment can play as large if not greater role in the OC dynamics of fjords than terrestrial ecosystems (Faust and Knies, 2019; Smeaton et al., 2021).

Here we explore the interactions between the sediments of the Loch Linnhe fjord complex on the West coast of Scotland and the adjacent continental shelf. Using an array of geochemical techniques the source, age and depositional history of the OC held within the sediments will be investigated to understand the geochemical processes driving OC burial and storage in both the fjord and continental shelf sediments. By integrating state-of-the-art spatial analytics with the geochemical measurements we further seek to quantify how these different sedimentary settings interact and how these processes drive OC dynamics across a continental shelf.    

References

Cui, X., Bianchi, T.S., Savage, C. and Smith, R.W., 2016. Organic carbon burial in fjords: Terrestrial versus marine inputs. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 451, pp.41-50.

Faust, J.C. and Knies, J., 2019. Organic matter sources in North Atlantic fjord sediments. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 20(6), pp.2872-2885.

Smeaton, C., Austin, W.E., Davies, A.L., Baltzer, A., Howe, J.A. and Baxter, J.M., 2017. Scotland's forgotten carbon: a national assessment of mid-latitude fjord sedimentary carbon stocks. Biogeosciences, 14(24), pp.5663-5674.

Smeaton, C. and Austin, W.E., 2017. Sources, sinks, and subsidies: Terrestrial carbon storage in mid‐latitude fjords. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 122(11), pp.2754-2768.

Smeaton, C., Yang, H. and Austin, W.E., 2021. Carbon burial in the mid-latitude fjords of Scotland. Marine Geology, 441, p.106618.

Smith, R.W., Bianchi, T.S., Allison, M., Savage, C. and Galy, V., 2015. High rates of organic carbon burial in fjord sediments globally. Nature Geoscience, 8(6), pp.450-453.

How to cite: Smeaton, C., Gulliver, P., and Austin, W.: Carbon Connections: understanding the carbon interactions between adjacent marine sedimentary environments. , EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-1547, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1547, 2022.

Benthic microorganisms transported into the water column potentially influence biogeochemical cycles and the pelagic food web structure. In our present study in the coastal waters of the Coal Oil Point seep field (California) and the Blowout site in the North Sea (abandoned well site 22/4b), we proved the dislocation of microorganisms from the sediment into the water column via gas bubbles released from the seabed. These studies showed that the transport efficiency of benthic methanotrophic bacteria into the water column was dependent on the gas flux intensity from the gas-releasing vent site. Cold seeps represent hot spots of seabed-derived methane emissions to the water column, where physical and biological barriers regulate transport of methane to the atmosphere. In our study, we combined field measurements with a particle-tracking model and demonstrated that sediment resuspension and gas-bubble-mediated inoculation of the water column with methane oxidizing bacteria decreased the methane turnover time by a factor of five. Our findings impressively demonstrate that the bubble-mediated transport of microorganisms influences the pelagic microbial abundance and community composition at gas-releasing seep sites. For cold seeps sites this newly discovered bentho-pelagic transport mechanisms creates a positive feedback on the pelagic methane sink and it seems obvious that this mechanism influences other biogeochemical processes in the vicinity of gas seeps, too.

How to cite: Schmale, O., Jordan, S., and Treude, T.: Bubble-mediated transport of benthic microorganisms into the water column and its implication on pelagic biogeochemical cycles., EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-2401, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-2401, 2022.

The spatio-temporal variability of the surface CO₂ system and its air-sea fluxes were studied in the Strait of Gibraltar based on high-resolution underway field data collected between February 2019 and March 2021 by a surface ocean observation platform (SOOP) aboard a volunteer observing ship (VOS). The surface CO₂ distribution was strongly influenced by the seasonal and spatial variability in the depth of the Atlantic-Mediterranean Interface layer and by upwelling of deep-water drove by the tidal and easterly winds. The variability of the CO₂ fugacity (fCO_2,sw) and fluxes were mainly driven by temperature despite the significant influence of non-thermal processes in the southernmost part. The thermal to non-thermal effect ratio (T/B) reached higher values values in the northern section (>1.8) compared with the southern section (<1.30) due to the enhancement of biological activity and vertical mixing related to the seasonal wind-induced upwelling along the African coast. The fCO_2,sw increased with temperature by 9.02 ± 1.99 µatm ºC (r²=0.86) and 4.51 ± 1.66 µatm ºC (r²=0.48) in the northern and southern sections, respectively. The annual cycle (referenced to 2019) of total inorganic carbon normalized to a constant salinity of 36.7 (NC_T) was attended. The net community production processes described 93.5-95.6% of the total NC_T change, while the contribution of air-sea exchange and horizontal and vertical advection was found to be minimal (<4.6%). According to the seasonality of air-sea CO₂ fluxes, the region behaved as a strong CO₂ sink during the cold months and as a weak CO₂ source during the warm months. The Strait of Gibraltar acted as annual net CO₂ sink, with higher net ingassing along the southern section (-1.01 mol C m^-2) compared to the northern section (-0.82 mol C m^-2). The calculated average CO₂ flux for the entire area was -7.12 Gg CO₂ yr^-1 (-1.94 Gg C yr^-1).

Keywords: Air-sea CO₂ fluxes, CO₂ system, VOS line, Surface Ocean Observation Platform, Strait of Gibraltar.

How to cite: Curbelo Hernández, D., Santana Casiano, J. M., González González, A., González Santana, D., and González Dávila, M.: Variability of the air-sea CO2 exchange in the Strait of Gibraltar based on measurements from a VOS line., EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-2412, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-2412, 2022.

Marine sediments comprise the primary long-term sink of organic matter (OM) in marine systems. A key mechanism for stabilization of OM in marine sediments occurs via protection on mineral surfaces. However, fine-grained minerals are prone to resuspension and redistribution prior to final burial, potentially further exposing OM to degradation. Here, we examine the sedimentological properties and geochemical characteristics of organic carbon (OC) in surface sediments from the Western Mediterranean Sea to shed light on the origin of OM and the underlying mechanisms that determine its fate in this semi-enclosed basin. We analysed the isotopic (ẟ¹³C, ẟ¹⁵N, and Δ ¹⁴C) and elemental (carbon and nitrogen content and C/N) composition of OC in 104 surface sediments retrieved from the Western Mediterranean Sea and the adjacent Atlantic Ocean, west of the Strait of Gibraltar. Corresponding grain-size and mineral surface area data were used to shed light on OM-mineral relationships and sedimentary transport mechanisms. The influence of this latter process was further evaluated by comparing the ¹⁴C age of OC and planktic foraminifera and analysing excess ²¹⁰Pb concentration in surface sediments. The OC content and ẟ¹³C and Δ ¹⁴C signatures depict a clear SW-NE gradient defined by strong differences between the westernmost (Alboran Sea) and the easternmost sub-basins (Northwestern and Balearic Sea). This gradient is attributed to differences in local primary productivity and delivery of terrestrial OC. When explored in a sedimentological context, our results suggest that both OM protection via association with mineral surfaces and selective degradation of labile OM during secondary transport plays an important role magnifying the contrast between endmembers manifested in these geochemical gradients.

How to cite: Ausin, B., Paradis, S., Bossert, G., Haghipour, N., and Eglinton, T.: Controls on the characteristics and distribution of sedimentary organic matter in the Western Mediterranean Sea , EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-3504, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-3504, 2022.

Coastal wetlands provide a range of ecosystem services and can support quite high biodiversity as a result of their high productivity. There are a range of techniques applied to monitoring and assessing ecological status and ecosystem service provision, however, traditional techniques can be quite time consuming and costly. In recent years, there has been a strong push to use remotely sensed data to evaluate ecological condition as well as estimate a range of ecosystem services within coastal wetlands.  Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) platforms have increasingly been used in the field of remote sensing of coastal wetlands because they provide detailed radiometric data to carry out the classification of the high-resolution images. Classifications using supervised Machine Learning algorithms can be performed on those images, providing robust datasets for a range of variables.

However, in spite of the flexibility of performing flight plans to monitor coastal wetlands with high accuracy, it is often not feasible to capture large areas using UAV systems. Satellite imagery can be used to undertake evaluations of a wide range of environmental variables in coastal wetlands over much larger areas. Finding synergies between images taken from UAVs and satellite could provide the possibility to extend local observations of plant functional diversity or ecosystem service provision in coastal wetlands to larger areas or to regions. Using validation techniques based on ground-truth data, high-resolution UAV derived images can be used to characterize terrain and ecological features, such as plant communities and then upscale them to satellite resolutions.

The present study presents a methodology to compare images taken from a UAV multispectral camera and the freely available Multispectral Instrument (MSI) sensor images from the Sentinel-2 satellite because their spectral bands overlap with those commonly used for plant community assessments in coastal wetlands using drones. First, each pixel of Sentinel-2 image is characterized by the most frequent category of plant communities obtained from a ML supervised classification of high-resolution UAV image. Then, the results of classifying the study areas with the Sentinel-2 image are compared with the previous process by analyzing the differences and similarities of categories in each pixel. By this way, synergies between the UAV and Sentinel-2 images can be found in order to have a reliable upscaling of UAV-based data. 
Keywords: Remote Sensing, UAV, Machine Learning, Upscaling

How to cite: Martinez Prentice, R., D. Ward, R., Peciña, M. V., and Sepp, K.: Image Upscaling Assesment From UAV To Sentinel-2 In Coastal Wetlands, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-2901, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-2901, 2022.

How to cite: Brandon, M., Lefèvre, N., Khvorostyanov, D., and Diverrès, D.: Spatial and temporal distribution of physical and CO2 properties in the English Channel based on voluntary observing ships between 2006 and 2021, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-4664, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-4664, 2022.

Coastal wetlands play a strategic role in the context of mitigating climate-change thanks to their ability of sequestering large amounts of organic carbon (C) and store it in the ground. However, methane (CH4) may form in the sediments of freshwater wetlands, so that these ecosystems may switch from a net sink to a net source of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Salinity is known to be one of the main inhibitors of CH4 production; however, its influence in brackish water systems is still poorly studied. Our study aims at understanding how the consequences of climate change (sea-level rise, salinization, and temperature increase) may affect the C storage in vegetated coastal wetlands.

Here we present the results of almost one year of measurements performed in four wetlands located along the northeast Adriatic coast near Ravenna, Italy. Despite a very limited distance among the four sites (1-4 km), they present a significant salinity gradient, going from fresh- to brackish waters. Air and soil temperatures and solar irradiance were continuously monitored through a network of sensors. Carbon dioxide (CO2) and CH4 fluxes from soils and waters, water head levels, surface, and ground water physical-chemical parameters (redox potential (Eh), temperature (T), pH, conductivity (EC), sulphate and sulfide concentrations) were measured monthly. Finally, soil samples were collected at each site in order to determine soil properties, i.e. organic matter content, bulk density, granulometry. 

We used multivariate statistics to investigate emergent relationships between GHGs fluxes from water and soil and environmental factors. The results of the principal component analysis (PCA) suggest that air T, water T  and irradiance play a significant role in both CH4 and CO2 emissions from water and soil. On the other hand, water head level and EC have been found to be limiting factors of the GHGs emissions. Soil properties seem to be secondary factors both in soil and water emissions.

The results obtained from these and other analyses will be presented to provide a critical insight on correlations between GHGs emissions and the environmental drivers in temperate coastal wetlands. A remote-sensing approach to upscale the results obtained on the four studied wetlands, to the adjacent coastal wetland system will also be presented. Remote sensing turns out to be a key method to extend the assessment on C fluxes to areas difficult to access and that could not be characterized otherwise.

How to cite: Chiapponi, E., Giambastiani, B. M. S., Zannoni, D., Antonellini, M., and Silvestri, S.: Exploring the driving factors of CH4 and CO2 emissions in coastal wetlands: a case study in the Ravenna Province, Italy, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-5326, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5326, 2022.

Algae blooms, specifically cyanobacterial blooms, are frequent in the Baltic Sea and pose major environmental problems for the marine ecosystem and coastal societies. Surface accumulations of algae exacebate eutrophication, limit access to oxygen and can be toxic to humans and marine life. They affect marine services including drinking water resources, marine operations, tourism and fishing. Monitoring of algae blooms based on satellite-borne and in-situ data have been ongoing for years. However, a proper assessment of monitoring needs to cover complex spatio-temporal variability of the blooms as well as reliable early warning and forecasts systems are still lacking, owing to the complexity of physical and biological processes involved in algae growth and too sparse data to constrain complex marine ecosystem models. As algal blooms are expected to intensify under the observed long-term warming of surface waters, developing relevant monitoring-early warning systems is a priority.

Our interdisciplinary collaboration aims at a tantalizing task of building a framework tailored for monitoring and forecasting of algae blooms in the Baltic Sea. The framework combines surface drift observations, in-situ observations, remotely-sensed chlorophyll products as well as numerical simulations of Lagrangian (drifting) trajectories driven by the ocean state forecast available at the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS). The first step toward this goal consisted of collecting observations of the surface drift in the Baltic Sea relevant to the dispersion of algae accumulations. To this end, we deployed 6 CARTHE Smart surface drifter platforms in Western Gotland Basin in August 2021. The CARTHE drifter platforms are designed to sample sea currents close to the surface compared to other standard drift measurements, provide a very accurate positioning data at 15 minute intervals, and their floating parts are biodegradable. We will present data from this experiment as well the results from a comparison between the observed surface drift and CMEMS-driven Lagrangian simulations. The results using relative dispersion statistics point to a good skill of the model-driven drift forecast (a few km error in mean dispersion over a two day scale). We extend the analysis including Lagrangian ecosystem modelling, spectral analysis and clustering approaches, taking into the consideration sparseness of in-situ data.

How to cite: Koszalka, I. M., Tachon, F., and Karlson, A. M.: A new observational-modelling framework for algae bloom monitoring and forecast in the Baltic Sea, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-12725, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12725, 2022.

The coastal shelf seas are a vitally important human resource for numerous ecosystem services, including food, carbon
storage, biodiversity, energy, and livelihoods. These highly dynamic regions are under a wide range of stresses, and
as such future management requires appropriate monitoring measures.  

A key metric to understanding and predicting future ecosystem change are the rates of biological production. Assessing
the variability in production at appropriate temporal and spatial scales is essential to accurately determine the fate
of carbon, and ecosystem health in these regions.  

Using high frequency data from a fleet of instrumented submersible gliders, we calculate oxygen based net community
production for an 18-month period in the central North Sea; a productivity hotspot and challenging environment for
long term monitoring with autonomous vehicles.
From these data we determine an annual depth integrated carbon budget, and we observe both the interannual and
seasonal changes in production.  

We compare these net community production estimates to the PAR and chlorophyll fluorescence based net primary
production estimates using the same glider fleet and supported by satellite earth observations. 

These observations and analysis are part of the AlterEco project, which seeks to demonstrate a novel monitoring
framework to deliver improved understanding of key shelf sea ecosystem drivers. 

How to cite: Hull, T., Greenwood, N., Loveday, B., Symth, T., Palmer, M., Williams, C., and Kaiser, J.: AlterEco: Annual shelf sea net production from a fleet of autonomous gliders , EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-13460, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-13460, 2022.

Abstract

The Senegalese coastal and shelf systems comprises a southern part of the Canary Islands upwelling system. The present study focuses on the study of phytoplankton from meso- to submesoscale during the transition period from the warm West African monsoon season to the cold upwelling season. This period coincides with the return of sardinella from their northward migration to its second most important spawning area resulting in a high retention on the southern coast, as well as possible events of the Senegalese fishermen's skin disease (as it was the case in November 2020). This is a very poorly documented period. The last studies allowing the study of the phytoplankton compartment date from the 1980s. Several data on phytoplankton were collected during the period from 29 November to 02 December 2017 for addressing phytoplankton distribution and dynamics: pigmentary data, microscopic counts, metabarcoding analysis of plankton diversity, single-cell analysis and characterization of optical groups by automated (in vivo) flow cytometry (CytoSen) as well as in vivo characterization of spectral/pigmentary groups by multispectral fluorometry (Fluoroprobe). Environmental data was supplied by CTD RBR concerto and the analysis of several physical and chemical parameters. In particular, FluoroProbe continuous subsurface measurements and profiles made it possible to considerably improve the spatial and temporal resolution of measurements and the dynamics of phytoplankton groups at submesoscale. Moreover, it was possible to follow spatial and temporal changes in the phytoplankton community, particularly at stations sampled twice at few days interval. Many unknown species characterized this period, especially in the nanophytoplankton size range. Distinct communities were found in the upwelling on the coastal fringe and in the old waters offshore, as shown by multispectral analysis. Phytoplankton blooms were observed, some of which being caused by the upwelling of cold water, but intermittently and weakly. In some stations, toxic species were found, such as species belonging to the genus Pseudo-Nitzschia.

Keywords: Upwelling, multi-spectral fluorometry, CTD, automated flow cytometry, metabarcoding, microscopy, phytoplankton diversity and dynamics.

How to cite: Beye, A., Machu, E., and Artigas, L. F.: Meso and submesoscale study of the phytoplankton compartment over part of the southern Canary Islands system during the transition period between the warm West African monsoon season and the cold upwelling season, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-12823, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12823, 2022.

Coastal benthic hypoxia and anoxia develop in thermally stratified coastal waters during warm summer months. They alter the chemical composition, biogeochemical cycling, and ecosystem functioning at the seafloor and can render the benthic habitat uninhabitable for higher life forms. With more and longer heatwaves expected due to global warming, the strength and persistence of stratification is expected to increase leading to longer and more extensive bottom water hypoxia in the coastal ocean. However, on short timescales benthic oxygen availability can be dominated by highly dynamic lateral transport and transient vertical mixing events that can compensate for the sediment oxygen demand through short-term ventilation events. The occurrence, temporal dynamics, and quantitative impacts of these ventilation events have so far been poorly understood.

We present results of a two-week summer field campaign at a 38 m deep thermally stratified  coastal site in the western Baltic Sea. An autonomously operating benthic lander system equipped with stationary oxygen optodes at fixed depths, a continuously profiling multiparameter probe, a high-frequency downward-looking ADCP was deployed together with an eddy correlation system, within 50 meters distance. The setup enabled the study of the vertically resolved temporal evolution of oxygen in relation to hydrodynamic parameters in the bottom waters at a second- and centimetre-scale resolution for a 280-hour long deployment period together with continuous measurements of the benthic oxygen consumption. At the beginning of the deployment bottom-water free-flow velocities were on average 1.6 cm/s consisting of a translatory and a rotating diurnal oscillatory component. Weakening of the translatory current component gradually turned the system into an almost pure oscillatory state with free-flow velocities of about 0.8 cm/s. Bottom-water oxygen concentrations were constant down to 5 cm above the sediment at an initial normoxic concentration of 170 μmol l^-1 that decreased with decreasing flow velocity to hypoxia below 63 µmol l^-1 by the end of the measurement series. During purely oscillatory flow the balance between sediment oxygen uptake and vertical transport resulted in a net bottom water oxygen loss of 6.4 μmol l^-1d^-1 increasing to -14.5 μmol l^-1d^-1 following a resuspension event. Even at low-flow velocities the bottom water remained well mixed. Bottom water oxygen loss was not continuous and instead varied between +43.5 and -45.2 μmol l^-1d^-1 corresponding to changes in lateral transport. Temporary changes (<2 hours) up to 30 μmol l^-1 were found due to convergence/divergence events of the bottom water during flow reversals.

These dynamic bottom water changes would have been undetectable using conventional shipboard tools due to their close proximity to the sea floor. We suggest that areas undergoing frequent hidden hypoxia and re-ventilation are more common than previously thought and have so far unexplored effects for benthic ecosystem functioning.

How to cite: Fredriksson, J., Brüchert, V., Attard, K., and Stranne, C.: Hidden Hypoxia in Coastal Waters, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-7492, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-7492, 2022.

Estuarine systems filter nutrients and organic matter from riverine input and lower concentrations reaching the sea. Sediments within these ecosystems play a significant role in the mineralization and retention of nutrients and organic matter within the estuary. Such processes are influenced by abiotic (e.g. salinity, temperature, etc.) and biological (e.g. fluctuations in the benthic community) parameters which may contrast remarkably between intertidal or subtidal zones. Despite their relative importance, few studies have investigated the biogeochemistry of intertidal sediments with high spatiotemporal resolution. This study reports the results of monthly biogeochemical monitoring in intertidal muddy sediments along the salinity gradient of the Western Scheldt estuary (NL). Budgets of OM mineralization and nutrient retention were calculated for the fresh, brackish, and marine water zones. Temperature controlled sediment oxygen consumption rates and nutrient fluxes. Fresh and brackish sediments had a net influx of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) (-1.62 mmol DIN m^-2 d^-1 and -2.84 mmol DIN m^-2 d^-1, respectively), while the freshwater area had the only net influx of phosphate (-0.07 mmol m^-2 d^-1). Marine sediments showed net effluxes of DIN and DIP. Despite the net influx observed in freshwater sediments, geospatial analysis showed that their contribution to the total estuarine filtering capacity was minimal due to their small area. In contrast, brackish and marine regions had a more important contribution to the estuarine filter because of their larger surface area. Overall, sediments removed 11% (1,500 t N y^-1) and 15% (~200 t P y^-1) of the total nitrogen and phosphorus entering the estuary from riverine input. Our findings highlight the importance of using spatially-resolving remineralization budgets to improve models and nutrient cycling estimates in estuarine systems.

How to cite: Rios-Yunes, D., Tiano, J. C., van Oevelen, D., van Dalen, J., and Soetaert, K.: Intertidal sediments exhibit different nutrient filtration capacity along the estuarine salinity gradient, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-4012, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-4012, 2022.

Globally, fjords are recognised as hotspots for the burial and storage of organic carbon (OC). The role of fjords as nationally and globally important carbon sinks is now well established, yet the long-term drivers and evolution of OC burial and storage in these coastal systems remains largely unknown. The location of fjords at the land-ocean interface in combination with their geomorphology results in a large proportion of the OC that is trapped in their sediments deriving from the terrestrial environment, yet the processes driving the delivery of terrestrial carbon into fjords over long timescales is often poorly constrained. In order to better understand these important processes, an understanding of terrestrial landscape change in conjunction with sedimentological data for carbon storage is required. Understanding the drivers of the carbon transfer at the land-ocean interface throughout the mid- to late-Holocene can provide insights into the sensitivity of catchments to climatic and anthropogenic pressure, which will be crucial to predicting future carbon loss, burial and storage scenarios across the land-ocean interface.

We present a new multiproxy palaeoenvironmental dataset developed from a core from Loch Eriboll, a large fjord in northern Scotland, spanning the last 5,000 years. Pollen data, taken to represent catchment-scale vegetation change, is used to investigate landscape change in response to natural and anthropogenic forcing mechanisms. Sedimentological and geochemical data are then used to reconstruct changes in the delivery of carbon into the fjord system via soil erosion. Comparison of two age models, developed from bulk radiocarbon dating and dating of shells, respectively, provide data on the relative age of carbon being reworked from the terrestrial system into the fjord.

We present evidence for links between the terrestrial and fjord systems throughout the mid to late Holocene. Throughout the record is a consistent radiocarbon age offset of approximately 800 years in the bulk data, and increases in this offset coincide with marked changes in the terrestrial vegetation on three discrete occasions: a significant reduction in Pinus, an increase in herbaceous pollen, and an expansion of heathland pollen. Complemented by a suite of geochemical proxies, including inorganic and organic geochemical signatures, these datasets provide insights into the sensitivity of fjordic systems to changes in the adjacent terrestrial system on centennial timescales.

How to cite: Hiles, W., Smeaton, C., and Austin, W.: Long-term carbon transfers at the land-ocean interface: evidence from Loch Eriboll, northern Scotland, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-5152, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5152, 2022.

With more than 50 variables, the Biogeochemical Flux Model (BFM) is one of the most advanced and complex marine biogeochemical models available. In addition to several phytoplankton and zooplankton groups, it also includes bacterioplankton, and its modular structure allows for the relatively straightforward addition of new plankton functional types (PFT). The BFM is used in the Copernicus Marine Service products for the Mediterranean Sea and these should provide ideal initial and boundary conditions for more detailed regional studies. Here we present the coupling of the BFM with the Coastal and Regional Ocean COmmunity model (CROCO; based on ROMS_AGRIF and SNH). The latter is a non-hydrostatic, terrain-following, free-surface ocean model with a highly efficient time-stepping algorithm, making it very suitable for high-resolution simulations and topographies with a wide range of depths. The models are directly coupled without an intermediate coupler and can be executed in parallel via Message Passing Interface (MPI). We present the results of an idealized case and these are in a good agreement with a similar configuration of a coupled MITgcm-BFM run (Cossarini et al., 2017). Not surprisingly, the coupled system CROCO-BFM proves to be computationally intensive given the large number of variables, and we explore different speed-up possibilities.

How to cite: Vodopivec, M., Strnisa, F., and Kosec, G.: Coupling the Coastal and Regional Ocean COmmunity model (CROCO) with the Biogeochemical Flux Model (BFM), EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-4666, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-4666, 2022.

The northern Benguela Upwelling System is characterized by significant oxygen and particle anomalies due to the lateral influx of both oxygenated water from the south and low-oxygen water that flows south across the northern Angola-Benguela front (ABF). Mesoscale features developing at the front and in the shelf region of the upwelling system further modulate these anomalies. Here we present the results of a study based on high-resolution glider data collected from the surface to 1000 m depth in February – June 2018 at 100 km off the coast of the northern Benguela (18°S). These in-situ data are further interpreted and generalized using high-resolution model output from the physical Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) coupled to the Biogeochemical Ecosystem Cycling (BEC) model. Using the glider data, we discuss the prevalence of low oxygen events characterized by O₂ < 120 µmol (sub-lethal level), O₂ < 60 µmol (hypoxia) and O₂ < 30 µmol (severe hypoxia) as a function of depth and time. We present two different impacts of eddies on oxygen concentrations: extreme hypoxia associated to a subsurface anticyclone generated at the Benguela shelf, and mixing between high and low oxygen water at the rim of a large surface anticyclone generated at the ABF. Through a spike analysis of the glider data, we study the distribution of large and small particles as a function of depth and time, and relate them to the identified mesoscale structures. We find that the subsurface eddy corresponds to a local low in small particle concentrations, while the frontal anticyclone is associated to a deep export event of both small and large particles. Further, we find that the region is characterized by a deep particle layer between 300 m and 500 m. Using the model output, we identify the drivers of this deep particle layer and deep export events and discuss the relative role of physics and biology in the determination of the vertical distribution of particles in the region of study.

How to cite: Lovecchio, E., Henson, S., Carvalho, F., and Briggs, N.: Meso and submesoscale oxygen and particle variability in the northern Benguela Upwelling System from glider and model data, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-5273, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5273, 2022.

The spatial variability in hydrography (salinity and temperature) and carbonate chemistry (alkalinity - A_T, total inorganic carbon concentration - C_T, pH, CO₂ partial pressure - pCO_2, and the saturation state of aragonite - Ω_Ar) in high meltwater season (summer) was investigated in four Spitsbergen fjords - Krossfjorden, Kongsfjorden, Isfjorden, and Hornsund. It was found that the differences in hydrology entail spatial changes in the CO₂ system structure. A_T decline with decreasing salinity was evident, however, this relationship was highly heterogenous. Significant surface water A_T variability (1889-2261 µmol kg^-1) suggests multiple freshwater sources having different alkalinity end-member values and biological processes occurring in the water column. Most of the A_T values were within the dilution lines of Ocean Water with freshwater having alkalinity from 0 to ~600 μmol kg^-1. However, the distribution of A_T against salinity suggests that locally the freshwater A_T­ maybe even higher. The effect of A_T fluxes from sediments on the bottom water was rather insignificant, despite high A_T values (2288-2666 μmol kg^-1) observed in the pore waters. Low pCO₂ results in surface water (200-295 μatm) points to intensive biological production, which can strongly affect the C_T values, however, is less important for shaping alkalinity. It has also been shown that the freshening of the surface water in the fjords reduces significantly Ω_Ar (an increase in freshwater fraction contribution by 1% causes a decrease in Ω_Ar by 0.022). Although during the polar day, due to low pCO₂, Ω_Ar values are still rather far from 1 (they ranged from 1.4 to 2.5), during polar night, when pCO₂ values are much higher, Ω_Ar may drop markedly.

This study highlights that the use of salinity to estimate the potential alkalinity can carry a high uncertainty, while good recognition of the surface water A_T variability and its freshwater end-members is key to predict marine CO₂ system changes along with the ongoing freshening of fjords waters due to climate warming.

How to cite: Koziorowska-Makuch, K., Szymczycha, B., Thomas, H., and Kuliński, K.: The effect of seawater freshening on the marine carbonate system variability in the high Arctic fjords, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-5776, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5776, 2022.

A large volume of river runoff influences the Kara Sea annually. The water masses coming from estuaries form a surface desalinated layer, which propagates under the influence of the wind forcing. A water during the melting of sea ice contributes to the desalination of the surface layer as well. At the end of the summer period of 2021, the presence of ice cover was observed in the northern and northeastern parts of the Kara Sea. The hydrological regime of rivers at the end of the summer period is characterized by a decrease in water consumption and, accordingly, a small volume of incoming river runoff.

Together with the fresh waters of the Ob, Yenisei and other rivers, various nutrients are transported into the sea. A part of nutrients is deposited in the estuaries of the Ob and Yenisei gulfs within the frontal zone. The other part is carried out to the open sea and serves as the basis for the activity of marine organisms in coastal ecosystems. The observed climatic changes in the Arctic affect the change in the distribution of parameters of the carbonate system, which, in turn, affects the marine ecosystem.

The main purpose of the work is to analyze the temporal and spatial variability of the hydrochemical structure and carbonate parameters at the end of the summer period of 2021.

The work uses the data obtained during the 58th cruise of the RV "Academik Ioffe" in august 2021 and the 86th cruise of the RV "Academik Mstislav Keldysh" to the Kara Sea in October 2021. The hydrochemical parameters that were determined included biogenic elements, dissolved oxygen, pH of hydrogen, alkalinity and components of the carbonate system.

Several groups of parameters are identified depending on the nature of the distribution of biogeochemical values in the water column of the Kara Sea. These groups include parameters that clearly mark the influence of river runoff, parameters in the distribution of which extremes in the frontal zone are distinguished, and parameters characterized by heterogeneity of distribution in the zone of mixing of fresh and marine waters.

The hydrochemical structure was characterized by great temporal and spatial variability associated with the influence of hydrological, meteorological and hydrobiological factors.

The temporal variability of biogeochemical parameters at the end of the summer period is considered. The change in the hydrogen pH index during the period under review is characterized by a decrease in the range of values. In august, the pH varied in the range of 7.5-8.5, in November - from 7.5 to 7.9. The partial pressure of carbon dioxide in August ranged from 136 ppm to 1260 ppm, in October - from 267 ppm to 850 ppm. The aragonite saturation varies from 0.07 to 2.4 in august and 0.2-1.75 in November.

The research is implemented in the framework of the state assignment of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology (theme No. 0128-2021-0007), with the support of the Russian Scientific Foundation (project № 19-17-00196) and the grant of the President of Russian Federation № МК-3506.2022.1.5

How to cite: Kazakova, U., Polukhin, A., Kostyleva, A., Pronina, J., Yakushev, E., and Osadchiev, A.: INFLUENCE OF THE CONTINENTAL RUNOFF ON THE BIOGEOCHEMICAL STRUCTURE OF THE KARA SEA SURFACE LAYER in 2021, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-5922, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5922, 2022.

Iron is an essential nutrient that limits primary productivity in up to 30% of the world’s ocean. Redox and complexation reactions control its solubility and therefore the fraction of dissolved and bioavailable iron. The iron (II) oxidation kinetic process was studied at 25 stations in coastal seawater of the Macaronesia region (around Cape Verde, the Canary Islands and Madeira). Laboratory experiments were carried out to study the pseudo-first-order oxidation rate constant (k’, min^-1) over a range of pH (7.8-8.1) and temperature (T; 10-25ºC). Measured k’ varied from the calculated k’ (k'_cal) at the same T, pH and salinity (S) at most stations. Measured iron (II) half-life times (t_1/2=ln2/k’; min) at the 25 stations ranged from 1.8-3.5 min (mean 1.9±0.8 min) and for all but two stations were lower than the theoretically calculated t_1/2 of 3.2±0.2 min. The biogeochemical context was considered by analysing nutrients and variables associated with the organic matter spectral properties (CDOM and FDOM). A multilinear regression model indicated that k’ can be described (R=0.921, SEE=0.064 for pH=8 and T=25ºC) from a linear combination of three organic variables.

k’^OM = k’_cal -0.11* TDN + 29.9 * b_DOM + 33.4 * C1_humic

where TDN is the total dissolved nitrogen, b_DOM is the spectral peak obtained from coloured DOM analysis when protein-like or tyrosine-like components are present and C1_humic is the component associated with humic-like compounds obtained from the parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) of the fluorescent DOM. Experimentally, k’ and k’^OM provide the net result between the compounds that accelerate the process and those that slow it down. Results show that compounds with nitrogen in their structures mainly explain the observed k’ increase for most of the samples, although other components could also present a relevant role.

How to cite: González-Santana, D., Santana-Casiano, J. M., Devresse, Q., Hepach, H., Santana-González, C., Quack, B., Engel, A., and González-Dávila, M.: The organic matter effect on Fe(II) oxidation kinetics within coastal seawater, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-5936, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5936, 2022.