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Particulate organic carbon in the estuarine turbidity maxima of the Gironde, Loire and Seine estuaries: origin and lability

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Abstract

A study of the particulate organic carbon (POC) in the estuarine turbidity maxima (ETMs) of the three major French macrotidal estuaries shows that the average contents are 1.5, 3.3 and 3.1% (expressed in % of dry suspended sediment) in the Gironde, Loire and Seine Estuaries, respectively. There is no seasonal variation of POC contents in the Gironde Estuary, whereas, they often increase in the Loire and the Seine Estuaries in spring and summer. The lability of the estuarine particulate organic matter was estimated by two analyses: 1/labile organic matter was measured as the organic carbon loss during incubation tests over one month; 2/ the hydrolysable organic fraction was determined after 6N HCl digestion. The organic fractions of the ETMs are mainly refractory. Any increase in the amount of POC as compared to the background levels (cited above) is always correlated to an increase of organic matter lability. The yearly average fluvial contributions by various particulate organic pools (soil and litter organic matter; organic matter of phytoplanktonic and human origin) that enter the three estuaries were quantified. In the Garonne River, soil and litter are the major (90%) POC sources. In the Loire system, due to the eutrophication of the river water, phytoplankton contributes up to 50% of the total POC load. In the Seine river, soil and litter contribute 70% of the total POC input; POC of human origin is also significant (10%), due to the impact of the City of Paris (10 million inhabitants). The lability of the different types of organic matter ranks as follows: phytoplankton ∼litter > human-origin organic matter >> soil. By combining the POC budgets and the lability of each type of organic fraction, it was possible to explain why the POC of the three ETMs is different and characterizes its refractory vs. labile nature.

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Acknowledgements

This work received financial support from the Seine Aval II programme. The authors are grateful to several colleagues who provided basic data used in the paper: Mr. Nicolas Ampen (DIREN, Nantes) and Ms. Cécile Gauffeny (DDASS, Nantes), who supplied the daily average discharge data of the Loire River for the last 10 years, and some TSS values at the entrance of the Loire Estuary; Mr. André Ficht and Ms. Marielle Olivier (SNS, Rouen), who both provided similar data and water samples from the Seine River and Estuary. Many thanks are due to Axel Romana, director of the programme Seine-Aval, for fruitful discussions and encouragement.

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  1. Département de Géologie et Océanographie, UMR CNRS 5805 EPOC, Université Bordeaux 1, Avenue des Facultés, 33405, Talence Cedex, France

    Henri Etcheber, Aurélien Taillez, Gwenaël Abril & Marc-Vincent Commarieu

  2. Laboratoire Sisyphe, UMR 7619, Boite 123, Université Pierre et Marie Curie Paris VI, 4 place Jussieu, 75252, Paris Cedex 05, France

    Josette Garnier

  3. Ecologie des Systèmes Aquatiques, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bd du Triomphe, 1050, Bruxelles, Belgium

    Pierre Servais

  4. Laboratoire de Géologie des Environnements Aquatiques Continentaux, Université de Tours, Parc de Grandmont, 37200, Tours, France

    Florentina Moatar

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  1. Henri Etcheber
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  2. Aurélien Taillez
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  7. Marc-Vincent Commarieu
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Correspondence to Henri Etcheber.

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Etcheber, H., Taillez, A., Abril, G. et al. Particulate organic carbon in the estuarine turbidity maxima of the Gironde, Loire and Seine estuaries: origin and lability. Hydrobiologia 588, 245–259 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-007-0667-9

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