ORCID
0000-0003-2422-3252 (Tamborski)
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2025
DOI
10.1029/2024GL109621
Publication Title
Geophysical Research Letters
Volume
52
Issue
3
Pages
e2024GL109621 (1-12)
Abstract
Widespread anthropogenic activities pollute groundwater that eventually seeps out to the coastal ocean. Here, we resolve nutrient transformations and fluxes in 11 sandy subterranean estuaries (STEs) with contrasting nutrient sources and development trajectories. Coastal groundwater nitrogen pollution stems from sewage discharge and land use change. Anthropogenically derived groundwater nutrient fluxes with high N/P ratios (∼170) accounted for 22%–61% of riverine inputs into China's coastal waters, providing an additional source of nutrients that can fuel coastal eutrophication and algal blooms. Sandy STEs remarkably attenuated ∼84% of nitrogen pollution, minimizing the impact of submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) on coastal water quality. Hence, STEs deliver an overlooked ecosystem service that is particularly important in highly polluted coastal aquifers. Protecting STEs and recognizing the integrated nature of groundwater and seawater is thus important in coastal water quality management initiatives.
Rights
© 2025 The Authors.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) License which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
Data Availability
Data are available in the Figshare repository at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.25256395.v1 (Chen, Santos, et al., 2024). All anthropogenic and climate factors in Section 2.4 can be found from governmental statistical yearbooks (http://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/ndsj/), the China Ports and Harbours Association (http://www.chinaports.com/), China Shipping Service (https://www.cnss.com.cn/), and the China Meteorological Data Service Center (http://data.cma.cn/).
Original Publication Citation
Chen, X., Santos, I. R., Du, J., Xu, B., Tamborski, J. J., He, D., Cukrov, N., Sanders, C. J., Liu, J., Zhu, P., Zhang, Y., & Li, L. (2025). Sandy subterranean estuaries minimize groundwater nitrogen pollution impacts on coastal waters. Geophysical Research Letters, 52(3), 1-12, Article e2024GL109621. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL109621
Repository Citation
Chen, Xiaogang; Santos, Isaac R.; Du, Jinzhou; Xu, Bochao; Tamborski, Joseph J.; He, Ding; Cukrov, Neven; Sanders, Christian J.; Liu, Jianan; Zhu, Peiyuan; Zhang, Yan; and Li, Ling, "Sandy Subterranean Estuaries Minimize Groundwater Nitrogen Pollution Impacts on Coastal Waters" (2025). OES Faculty Publications. 533.
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/oeas_fac_pubs/533
Supporting Information
Included in
Environmental Policy Commons, Natural Resources and Conservation Commons, Oceanography Commons