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Ammonium regeneration in intertidal sediments of the Yangtze estuary during air-exposure

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Environmental Geology

Abstract

The influences of exposure to the atmosphere on ammonium cycle in the intertidal surface sediments were in situ studied with a geochemical approach at a typical station in the Yangtze Estuary during three tidal cycles in September 2003. During an about 8-h emersion period of each diurnal tide, six high-resolution vertical profiles of adsorbed and dissolved ammonium were measured. It was observed that both adsorbed and dissolved ammonium generally had an increasing trend in sediment cores during the exposure. The rate of ammonium regeneration in sediments was estimated using the accumulation amount of ammonium including adsorbed and soluble fractions during the daytime emersion. The calculation result showed that there was relatively high ammonification rate (˜500 nmol N cm−3 day−1), which reflected that organic nitrogen in sediments was quickly decomposed with a residence time of ˜52.7 days. Due to the dramatic temperature difference observed in sediment profiles, free convection was considered an important mechanism of regulating the efflux of produced ammonium into overlying waters. The total estimated amount of regenerated ammonium was ˜1.35×105 t N year−1 in the intertidal flat of the Yangtze Estuary, which occupied 7.6% of the total inorganic nitrogen annually transported to the estuarine ecosystem.

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Acknowledgements

This research is part of the project of the biogeochemical cycling of multi-materials in the Yangtze estuarine and coastal complex ecosystem supported by the National Natural Science Key Foundation of China (Nos. 40131020 and 49801018), Tidal Flat Project by Science & Technology Committee of Shanghai (No. 04DZ12049), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2005037135) and Shanghai Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 04R214122). The anonymous reviewers are thanked for their constructive comments on a preliminary draft of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, 200062, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

    L.J. Hou & J.J. Lu

  2. Department of Geography, Key Laboratory of Geographical Information Science of the Ministry of Education, East China Normal University, 200062, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

    M. Liu, S.Y. Xu, D.N. Ou & D.G. Zheng

  3. Institute of Geoscience, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, 55099, Becherweg, Germany

    Y. Yang

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  1. L.J. Hou
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  2. M. Liu
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  3. J.J. Lu
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  4. S.Y. Xu
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  5. D.N. Ou
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  6. Y. Yang
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  7. D.G. Zheng
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Correspondence to L.J. Hou.

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Hou, L., Liu, M., Lu, J. et al. Ammonium regeneration in intertidal sediments of the Yangtze estuary during air-exposure. Environ Geol 49, 937–945 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-005-0125-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-005-0125-9

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