Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Direct and Indirect Effects of Estuarine Reclamation on Nutrient and Metal Fluxes in the Global Coastal Zone

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Aquatic Geochemistry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We demonstrate that land reclamation in estuaries is resulting in very large-scale loss of intertidal area and disconnection of stored sediment with the water column. This process is not just causing loss of estuarine ecosystem services, it is also having a major deleterious impact on the ability of estuaries to retain nutrients and trace metals. The global scale of loss of estuarine wetlands and subtidal sediments has reached the point where the impact of this loss of estuarine retention is likely to be affecting coastal seas worldwide and possibly global element cycles.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Andrews JE et al (2006) Biogeochemical value of managed realignment, Humber estuary, UK. Sci Total Environ 371:19–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Andrews JE et al (2011) Sediment record and storage of organic carbon and the nutrient elements (N, P, and Si) in Estuaries and near-coastal seas. In: Wolanski E, Mclusky D (eds) Treatise on estuarine and coastal science. Academic Press, Waltham

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyd PW, Ellwood MJ (2010) The biogeochemical cycle of iron in the ocean. Nat Geosci 3:675–682

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Church TM (1986) Biogeochemical factors influencing the residence time of microconstituents in a large tidal estuary, Delaware Bay. Mar Chem 18:393–406

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Church TM et al (1996) Salt marshes: an important coastal sink for dissolved uranium. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 60:3879–3887

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Claussen U et al (2009) Assessment of the eutrophication status of transitional, coastal and marine waters within OSPAR. Hydrobiologia 629:49–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dai ZJ et al (2011) Variation of riverine material loads and environmental consequences on the Changjiang (Yangtze) estuary in recent decades (1955–2008). Environ Sci Technol 45:223–227

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Vriend HJ et al (2011) Eco-morphological problems in the Yangtze Estuary and the Western Scheldt. Wetlands 31:1033–1042

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deek A et al (2013) N-2 fluxes in sediments of the Elbe Estuary and adjacent coastal zones. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 493:9–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duarte CM et al (2008) The charisma of coastal ecosystems: addressing the imbalance. Estuaries Coasts 31:605

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dyer KR (1997) Estuaries : a physical introduction, 2nd edn. Wiley, Chichester

    Google Scholar 

  • Eisma D (1981) Supply and deposition of suspended matter in the North Sea. In: Nio S-D, Shüttenhelm RTE, Van Weering TjCE (eds) Holocene marine sedimentation in the North Sea basin. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Oxford. doi:10.1002/9781444303759.ch29

    Google Scholar 

  • Fichez R et al (1992) Algal blooms in high turbidity, a result of the conflicting consequences of turbulence on nutrient cycling in a shallow-water estuary. Estuar Coast Shelf Sci 35:577–592

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fitzsimons MF et al (2011) The role of suspended particles in estuarine and coastal biogeochemistry. In: Wolanski E, Mclusky D (eds) Treatise on estuarine and coastal science. Academic Press, Waltham

    Google Scholar 

  • Galbraith ED et al (2013) The acceleration of oceanic denitrification during deglacial warming. Nat Geosci 6:579–584

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galler JJ, Allison MA (2008) Estuarine controls on fine-grained sediment storage in the Lower Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers. Geol Soc Am Bull 120:386–398

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galy V et al (2015) Global carbon export from the terrestrial biosphere controlled by erosion. Nature 521:204–207

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gislason SR et al (2006) Role of river-suspended material in the global carbon cycle. Geology 34:49–52

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hopwood MJ et al (2015a) Glacial meltwater from Greenland is not likely to be an important source of Fe to the North Atlantic. Biogeochemistry 124:1–11

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hilton RG et al (2015) Erosion of organic carbon in the Arctic as a geological carbon dioxide sink. Nature 524:84–87

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hopwood MJ et al (2015b) Dissolved iron(II) ligands in river and estuarine water. Mar Chem 173:173–182

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hou LJ et al (2009) Phosphorus speciation and availability in intertidal sediments of the Yangtze Estuary, China. Appl Geochem 24:120–128

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Howarth R et al (2011) Coupled biogeochemical cycles: eutrophication and hypoxia in temperate estuaries and coastal marine ecosystems. Front Ecol Environ 9:18–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jeandel C, Oelkers EH (2015) The influence of terrigenous particulate material dissolution on ocean chemistry and global element cycles. Chem Geol 395:50–66

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jickells TD, Weston K (2011) Nitrogen cycle—external cycling: losses and gains. In: Wolanski E, Mclusky D (eds) Treatise on estuarine and coastal science. Academic Press, Waltham

    Google Scholar 

  • Jickells T et al (2000) Nutrient fluxes through the Humber estuary-Past, present and future. Ambio 29:130–135

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jickells TD et al (2005) Global iron connections between desert dust, ocean biogeochemistry, and climate. Science 308:67–71

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jickells TD et al (2014) Nutrient transport through estuaries: the importance of the estuarine geography. Estuar Coast Shelf Sci 150:215–229

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klunder MB et al (2012) Dissolved iron in the Arctic shelf seas and surface waters of the central Arctic Ocean: impact of Arctic river water and ice-melt. J Geophys Res Ocean 117:C01027. doi:10.1029/2011JC007133

    Google Scholar 

  • Kraft JC et al (1992) Geologic and human-factors in the decline of the tidal salt-marsh lithosome: the Delaware estuary and Atlantic coastal zone. Sed Geol 80:233–246

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lacan F, Jeandel C (2005) Neodymium isotopes as a new tool for quantifying exchange fluxes at the continent–ocean interface. Earth Planet Sci Lett 232:245–257

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lohan MC, Bruland KW (2008) Elevated Fe(II) and dissolved Fe in hypoxic shelf waters off Oregon and Washington: an enhanced source of iron to coastal upwelling regimes. Environ Sci Technol 42:6462–6468

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lotze HK et al (2006) Depletion, degradation, and recovery potential of estuaries and coastal seas. Science 312:1806–1809

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luisetti T et al (2014) Coastal zone ecosystem services: from science to values and decision making; a case study. Sci Total Environ 493:682–693

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mantoura RFC et al (1991) Ocean margin processes in global change : report of the Dahlem workshop on ocean margin processes in global change, Berlin, 1990, March 18–23, Wiley

  • Mcleod E et al (2011) A blueprint for blue carbon: toward an improved understanding of the role of vegetated coastal habitats in sequestering CO2. Front Ecol Environ 9:552–560

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Milliman JD et al (1972) Sediments of continental margin off eastern United-States. Geol Soc Am Bull 83:1315

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Milliman JD et al (1985) Transport and deposition of river sediment in the Changjiang estuary and adjacent continental-shelf. Cont Shelf Res 4:37–45

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Millward GE (1995) Processes affecting trace-element speciation in estuaries: a review. Analyst 120:609–614

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Millward GE, Liu YP (2003) Modelling metal desorption kinetics in estuaries. Sci Total Environ 314:613–623

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitsch WJ et al (2001) Reducing nitrogen loading to the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River Basin: strategies to counter a persistent ecological problem. Bioscience 51:373–388

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moore WS, Shaw TJ (2008) Fluxes and behavior of radium isotopes, barium, and uranium in seven Southeastern US rivers and estuaries. Mar Chem 108:236–254

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ng B et al (1996) Modelling contaminant geochemistry in estuaries. Water Res 30:63–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicholls RJ et al (1999) Increasing flood risk and wetland losses due to global sea-level rise: regional and global analyses. Global Environ Change 9(Suppl 1):S69–S87

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oelkers EH et al (2011) The role of riverine particulate material on the global cycles of the elements. Appl Geochem 26:S365–S369

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oelkers EH et al (2012) Riverine particulate material dissolution in seawater and its implications for the global cycles of the elements. CR Geosci 344:646–651

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parkes DJ (2003) Storage and cycling of organic carbon and nutrients in Holocene coastal sediments, PhD Thesis, University of East Anglia, UK

  • Philipp KR (2005) History of Delaware and New Jersey salt marsh restoration sites. Ecol Eng 25:214–230

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prastka K, Malcolm S (1994) Particulate phosphorus in the Humber estuary. Neth J Aquat Ecol 28:397–403

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prastka K et al (1998) Has the role of estuaries as sources or sinks of dissolved inorganic phosphorus changed over time? Results of a K-d Study. Mar Pollut Bull 36:718–728

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rabalais NN et al (2009) Global change and eutrophication of coastal waters. ICES J Mar Sci 66:1528–1537

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Radach G, Lenhart HJ (1995) Nutrient dynamics in the North-Sea: fluxes and budgets in the water column derived from ERSEM. Neth J Sea Res 33:301–335

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruttenberg KC (2003) The global phosphorus cycle. In: Turekian HDHK (ed) Treatise on geochemistry. Pergamon, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanders RJ et al (1997) Nutrient fluxes through the Humber estuary. J Sea Res 37:3–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seitzinger SP et al (2005) Sources and delivery of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus to the coastal zone: an overview of Global Nutrient Export from Watersheds (NEWS) models and their application. Global Biogeochem Cycles 19:GB4S01. doi:10.1029/2005GB002606

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seitzinger SP et al (2010) Global river nutrient export: A scenario analysis of past and future trends. Global Biogeochem Cycles 24:GB0A08. doi:10.1029/2009GB003587

    Google Scholar 

  • Seitzinger S et al (2006) Denitrification across landscapes and waterscapes: a synthesis. Ecol Appl 16:2064–2090

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Statham PJ (2012) Nutrients in estuaries: an overview and the potential impacts of climate change. Sci Total Environ 434:213–227

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Syvitski JPM, Kettner A (2011) Sediment flux and the Anthropocene. Philos Trans R Soc Math Phys Eng Sci 369:957–975

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tappin AD (2002) An examination of the fluxes of nitrogen and phosphorus in temperate and tropical estuaries: current estimates and uncertainties. Estuar Coast Shelf Sci 55:885–901

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner RE (1997) Wetland loss in the northern Gulf of Mexico: multiple working hypotheses. Estuaries 20:1–13

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner A, Millward GE (2002) Suspended particles: their role in estuarine biogeochemical cycles. Estuar Coast Shelf Sci 55:857–883

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner RE, Rabalais NN (2003) Linking landscape and water quality in the Mississippi river basin for 200 years. Bioscience 53:563–572

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner RK, Schaafsma M (2015) Coastal zones ecosystem services. From science to values and decision making. Springer, Cham Heidelberg

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Uncles RJ et al (2002) The dependence of estuarine turbidity on tidal intrusion length, tidal range and residence time. Cont Shelf Res 22:1835–1856

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ussher SJ et al (2007) Distribution and redox speciation of dissolved iron on the European continental margin. Limnol Oceanogr 52:2530–2539

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van der Zee C et al (2007) Phosphorus speciation, transformation and retention in the Scheldt estuary (Belgium/The Netherlands) from the freshwater tidal limits to the North Sea. Mar Chem 106:76–91

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Maren DS et al (2015) The impact of channel deepening and dredging on estuarine sediment concentration. Cont Shelf Res 95:1–14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Velde B et al (2003) Contrasting trace element geochemistry in two American and French salt marshes. Mar Chem 83:131–144

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Viers J et al (2009) Chemical composition of suspended sediments in World Rivers: new insights from a new database. Sci Total Environ 407:853–868

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang DQ et al (2007) Summer-time denitrification and nitrous oxide exchange in the intertidal zone of the Yangtze Estuary. Estuar Coast Shelf Sci 73:43–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang W et al (2014) Development and management of land reclamation in China. Ocean Coast Manag 102:415–425

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Windom H et al (2000) Uranium in rivers and estuaries of globally diverse, smaller watersheds. Mar Chem 68:307–321

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winterwerp JC, Wang ZB (2013) Man-induced regime shifts in small estuaries-I: theory. Ocean Dyn 63:1279–1292

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winterwerp JC et al (2013) Man-induced regime shifts in small estuaries-II: a comparison of rivers. Ocean Dyn 63:1293–1306

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yang HY et al (2011) Impacts of tidal land reclamation in Bohai Bay, China: ongoing losses of critical Yellow Sea waterbird staging and wintering sites. Bird Conserv Int 21:241–259

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang J et al (2007) Nutrient gradients from the eutrophic Changjiang (Yangtze River) Estuary to the oligotrophic Kuroshio waters and re-evaluation of budgets for the East China Sea Shelf. Prog Oceanogr 74:449–478

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu ZY et al (2011) Hypoxia off the Changjiang (Yangtze River) Estuary: oxygen depletion and organic matter decomposition. Mar Chem 125:108–116

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank the many students and colleagues who have collaborated in our work on coastal systems. This work is supported in part by the Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry Programme supported by NERC and DEFRA. We thank two reviewers for helpful comments that greatly improved this manuscript. We acknowledge the friendship, support, scholarship and joie de vivre of Tom Church which has illuminated our work and play over 35 years.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK

    T. D. Jickells, J. E. Andrews & D. J. Parkes

Authors
  1. T. D. Jickells
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. J. E. Andrews
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. D. J. Parkes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to T. D. Jickells.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Jickells, T.D., Andrews, J.E. & Parkes, D.J. Direct and Indirect Effects of Estuarine Reclamation on Nutrient and Metal Fluxes in the Global Coastal Zone. Aquat Geochem 22, 337–348 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10498-015-9278-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10498-015-9278-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation