Fluxes of nutrients and dissolved and particulate organic carbon in two mangrove creeks in northeastern Australia

Abstract

In Coral and Conn Creek, northeastern Australia, the variations in concentrations of nitrate, phosphate, silicate, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and particulate organic carbon (POC) were measured over tidal cycles on five occasions and along each creek on four occasions. The fluxes of these five properties were then estimated using two methods. The first method is the so‐called Eulerian method, whereby water flow and material concentration are measured at a fixed station near the creek mouth and the net flux is calculated by adding up flux increments over a tidal cycle. The second method first derives the longitudinal eddy diffusion coefficient from the salt mass balance equation and then calculates material fluxes from their observed gradients along the creek. The use of the latter method is permitted only in the absence of freshwater inputs.