Pore water nutrient characteristics and the fluxes across the sediment in the Pearl River estuary and adjacent waters, China

Abstract

Spatio-temporal distribution of pore water nutrients and the fluxes at the sediment-water interface (SWI) were investigated to probe into the geochemical behavior of nutrients associated with early diagenesis of organic matter (OM), and to study the accumulation and transformation processes of nutrients at the SWI, as well as to discuss the impact of riverine inputs on nutrients in the Pearl River estuary (PRE) and adjacent offshore areas. Nutrient concentrations decreased from the upper to the lower reaches of the estuary, suggesting that there was a high input of anthropogenic nutrients and the estuary was acting as a nutrient sink. Dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN: the sum of NH4–N, NO3–N and NO2–N) concentrations in the water column and the pore water were higher in the estuary than at offshore areas due to the riverine discharge and the high accumulation rate in the estuary. NO3–N concentration was the highest of the three forms of DIN in the overlying water and showed a sharp decrease from the surficial sediment with increasing sediment depth, indicating that there was strong denitrification at the SWI. NH4–N, mainly deriving from the anaerobic degradation of OM, was the main form of DIN in the pore water and increased with depth. Negative NO3–N fluxes (into the sediment) and positive NH4–N fluxes (from the sediment) were commonly observed from incubation experiments, indicating the denitrification occurred at the SWI. DIN flux suggested that the sediment was a sink of DIN in spring, however, the sediment was the source of DIN in summer and winter. Nutrients dominantly diffused out of the sediment, suggesting that the sediment was the source of nutrients in spring at adjacent offshore areas. The fluxes directed that PO4–P mainly diffused into the sediment while SiO4–Si mainly diffused out of the sediment.