Nutrient exchanges at the sediment-water interface and the responses to environmental changes in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea

Nan Zhou; Guo Ling Zhang; Su Mei Liu

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.113420

Nutrient exchanges at the sediment-water interface and the responses to environmental changes in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea

Mar Pollut Bull. 2022 Mar:176:113420. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.113420. Epub 2022 Feb 12.

Authors

Nan Zhou¹, Guo Ling Zhang², Su Mei Liu³

Affiliations

¹ Frontiers Science Center for Deep Ocean Multispheres and Earth System, Key Laboratory of Marine Chemistry Theory and Technology, Ministry of Education, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China; Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, China. Electronic address: zhounan5235@ouc.edu.cn.
² Frontiers Science Center for Deep Ocean Multispheres and Earth System, Key Laboratory of Marine Chemistry Theory and Technology, Ministry of Education, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China. Electronic address: zhangguoling@ouc.edu.cn.
³ Frontiers Science Center for Deep Ocean Multispheres and Earth System, Key Laboratory of Marine Chemistry Theory and Technology, Ministry of Education, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China; Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, China. Electronic address: sumeiliu@ouc.edu.cn.

PMID: 35168072
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.113420

Abstract

Release from the sediment is an important nutrient source to the water column of global oceans, especially for marginal seas with active biogeochemical processes. Benthic nutrient biogeochemistry and its responses to environmental changes were investigated in the eastern marginal seas of China using a two-layer diffusion-advection-reaction diagenetic model. Overall, the sediment represented the primary nutrient source with fluxes of ~-342 ± 197, -1.25 ± 0.50, and -114 ± 56 × 10⁸ mol/month for dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), phosphate, and silicate, respectively. This could contribute up to ~42% of nutrients requested by primary production (PP), with a DIN/SiO₃^2-/PO₄^3- molar ratio of 273:91:1, which was higher than that in the overlying water (49:47:1). Future benthic nutrient fluxes were predicted under two environmental change scenarios (increasing and decreasing PP and biogenic silica). Our study may help rebuild nutrient budgets in the future and formulate environmental management policies in marginal seas.

Keywords: Benthic nutrient exchange; Early chemical diagenesis; Environmental change; Marginal sea; Nutrient dynamics.

MeSH terms

China
Environmental Monitoring*
Geologic Sediments
Nitrogen / analysis
Nutrients
Oceans and Seas
Water*

Substances

Water
Nitrogen