Sediment and particulate organic carbon budgets of a subarctic estuarine fjard: Lake Melville, Labrador

Abstract

Sediment and particulate organic carbon (POC) budgets constructed for oceanic regions provide a means to quantify the burial of POC, providing a baseline against which future change can be measured. Here we developed the first mass balance budgets of sediment and POC (terrestrial and marine) for the Lake Melville system (LMS; Goose Bay and Lake Melville) in central Labrador using previously published data (210Pb-based mass accumulation rates, river discharge, and total suspended solids) together with measurements of %OC and δ13C signatures within dated sediment cores collected from the LMS basins and water from main tributaries and Groswater Bay. A two end-member mixing model was used to establish fractions of terrigenous and marine POC. Overall, our mass balance budgets show that the Churchill River is the major supply of sediment (16.7 ± 7.8 × 108 kg y−1) and POCterr (18.4 ± 6.6 × 106 kg y−1) to the LMS, accounting for 47% and 56% of the total input to the system, respectively. Although the Churchill River drains directly into Goose Bay along with the smaller Goose River, the majority of sediment (12.9 ± 7.8 × 108 kg y−1) and POCterr (11.8 ± 7.0 × 106 kg y−1) is transported eastward through the surface water plume into Lake Melville. Inputs of POCmar from autochthonous primary production, estimated by applying an empirical relationship between sediment-surface flux of POCmar and water depth, to Goose Bay (1.8 × 106 kg y−1) and Lake Melville (98.3 ± 4.7 × 106 kg y−1) increase with increasing distance from the Churchill River. To investigate the potential changes to the sediment load of the Churchill River to the LMS following impoundment at Muskrat Falls, we calculated the sediment increase using the median reservoir shoreline erosion potential. This approach showed that the delivery of sediment and POCterr to the LMS by the Churchill River may double during the two years following impoundment of the lower Churchill River.