Summary
The influence of stratification on the oxygen regime and nutrient concentrations was examined over four years in an estuary (South West Arm, Port Hacking, N.S.W., Australia) affected by occasional heavy freshwater run-off. The rate of detrital input to the sediment was measured using sedimentation tubes, and oxygen flux across the sediment-water interface was estimated from the oxygen consumption of intact sediment cores.
Following the onset of stratification, oxygen concentration in the bottom water decreased, frequently reaching zero, and the concentrations of nitrate, phosphate, silicate and ammonium all increased, though the occurrence of nitrate depended on the presence of oxygen. It was concluded that the major source of these nutrients was planktonic detritus recently settled from the water column, although over short periods terrestrial material (following torrential rain) and the sediment nutrient pool (during anoxic conditions) were also important.
The rate of nitrogen remineralization at the sediment surface, on a mean annual basis, was found to be 40% of that required by phytoplankton, which demonstrates the important link between benthic recycling and the productivity of the water column.
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Bulleid, N.C. (1983). The Nutrient Cycle of an Intermittently Stratified Estuary. In: Cuff, W., Tomczak, M. (eds) Synthesis and Modelling of Intermittent Estuaries. Lecture Notes on Coastal and Estuarine Studies, vol 3. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-49991-3_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-49991-3_5
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