Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-2019

DOI

10.1029/2018JC014646

Publication Title

Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans

Volume

124

Issue

6

Pages

3755-3778

Abstract

This study uses a neural network model trained with in situ data, combined with satellite data and hydrodynamic model products, to compute the daily estuarine export of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) at the mouths of Chesapeake Bay (CB) and Delaware Bay (DB) from 2007 to 2011. Both bays show large flux variability with highest fluxes in spring and lowest in fall as well as interannual flux variability (0.18 and 0.27 Tg C/year in 2008 and 2010 for CB; 0.04 and 0.09 Tg C/year in 2008 and 2011 for DB). Based on previous estimates of total organic carbon (TOCexp) exported by all Mid‐Atlantic Bight estuaries (1.2 Tg C/year), the DOC export (CB + DB) of 0.3 Tg C/year estimated here corresponds to 25% of the TOCexp. Spatial and temporal covariations of velocity and DOC concentration provide contributions to the flux, with larger spatial influence. Differences in the discharge of fresh water into the bays (74 billion m3/year for CB and 21 billion m3/year for DB) and their geomorphologies are major drivers of the differences in DOC fluxes for these two systems. Terrestrial DOC inputs are similar to the export of DOC at the bay mouths at annual and longer time scales but diverge significantly at shorter time scales (days to months). Future efforts will expand to the Mid‐Atlantic Bight and Gulf of Maine, and its major rivers and estuaries, in combination with coupled terrestrial‐estuarine‐ocean biogeochemical models that include effects of climate change, such as warming and CO2 increase.

Rights

© 2019 American Geophysical Union

"AGU allows authors to deposit their journal articles if the version is the final published citable version of record, the AGU copyright statement is clearly visible on the posting, and the posting is made 6 months after official publication by the AGU."

Original Publication Citation

Signorini, S. R., Mannino, A., Friedrichs, M. A. M., Pierre, S. L., Wilkin, J., Tabatabai, A., . . . Yao, Y. (2019). Estuarine dissolved organic carbon flux from space: With application to Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 124(6), 3755-3778. doi:10.1029/2018JC014646

ORCID

0000-0001-6710-4371 (Hofmann)

Download

Share

Article Location

 
COinS