Oceanography The Official Magazine of
The Oceanography Society
Volume 21 Issue 04

View Issue TOC
Volume 21, No. 4
Pages 179 - 184

OpenAccess

Forcing and Dynamics of Seafloor-Water Column Exchange on a Broad Continental Shelf

By William B. Savidge , Ann Gargett , Richard A. Jahnke, James R. Nelson, Dana K. Savidge , R. Timothy Short , and George Voulgaris  
Jump to
Citation References Copyright & Usage
First Paragraph

Relict sediments of elevated permeability characterize the majority of continental shelves globally (Emery, 1968). In these settings, interactions between benthic boundary layer (BBL) flows and seabed topography generate pressure fluctuations that drive advective and dispersive porewater transport, dramatically increasing the magnitude and variability of porewater solute and particulate exchange across the sediment-water interface (Huettel et al., 1996; Huettel and Rusch, 2000). On broad shallow shelves with a relatively large area-to-volume ratio, the seafloor’s role is magnified. Energetic events may reorganize bedforms across a significant fraction of the shelf, leading to altered exchange dynamics that may persist long after the organizing event. Ecosystem-based management of both resources and environmental status requires improved fundamental understanding of dynamic benthic exchange processes. Scattered, short-time-scale observations are unlikely to capture the full spectrum of events that affect sediment-water exchanges; a persistent observational presence on the seafloor is required.

Citation

Savidge, W.B., A. Gargett, R.A. Jahnke, J.R. Nelson, D.K. Savidge, R.T. Short, and G. Voulgaris. 2008. Forcing and dynamics of seafloor-water column exchange on a broad continental shelf. Oceanography 21(4):179–184, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2008.16.

References
    Bell, R.J., R.T. Short, F.H.W. Van Amerom, and R.H. Byrne. 2007. Calibration of an in situ membrane inlet mass spectrometer for measurements of dissolved gases and volatile organics in seawater. Environmental Science and Technology 41:8,123–8,128.
  1. Edwards, K.P., J.A. Hare, F.E. Werner, and B.O. Blanton. 2006. Lagrangian circulation on the southeast US continental shelf: Implications for larval dispersal and retention. Continental Shelf Research 26:1,375–1,394.
  2. Emery, K.O. 1968. Relict sediments on continental shelves of the world. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 52:445–464.
  3. Gargett, A., J. Wells, A.E. Tejada-Martinez, and C.E. Grosch. 2004. Langmuir supercells: A mechanism for sediment resuspension and transport in shallow seas. Science 306:1,925–1,928.
  4. Huettel, M., and A. Rusch. 2000. Transport and degradation of phytoplankton in permeable sediment. Limnology and Oceanography 45:534–549.
  5. Huettel, M., W. Ziebis, and S. Forster. 1996. Flow-induced uptake of particulate matter in permeable sediments. Limnology and Oceanography 41:309–322.
  6. Jahnke, R., M. Richards, J. Nelson, C. Robertson, A. Rao, and D. Jahnke. 2005. Organic matter remineralization and porewater exchange rates in permeable South Atlantic Bight continental shelf sediments. Continental Shelf Research 25:1,433–1,452.
  7. Jahnke, R.A., J.R. Nelson, M.E. Richards, C.Y. Robertson, A.M.F. Rao, and D. Jahnke. 2008. Benthic primary production on the Georgia mid-continental shelf: Benthic flux measurements and high-resolution, continuous in situ PAR records. Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans 113(C8), doi:10.1029/2008JC004745.
  8. Short, R.T., D.P. Fries, M.L. Kerr, C.E. Lembke, S.K. Toler, P.G. Wenner, and R.H. Byrne. 2001. Underwater mass spectrometers for in situ chemical analysis of the hydrosphere. Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry 12:676–682.
  9. Voulgaris, G., J.H. Trowbridge, J.J. Shaw, and A. Williams. 1998. High resolution measurements of turbulent fluxes and dissipation rates in the benthic boundary layer. Pp. 117–186 in Coastal Dynamics 97. E.B. Thornton, ed., American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, VA.
  10. Voulgaris, G., and J.P. Morin. 2008. A long-term real time sea bed morphology evolution system in the South Atlantic Bight. Pp. 71–79 in Proceedings of the IEEE/OES/CMTC Ninth Working Conference on Current Measurement Technology, 17–19 March, 2008. Charleston, SC.
Copyright & Usage

This is an open access article made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format as long as users cite the materials appropriately, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate the changes that were made to the original content. Images, animations, videos, or other third-party material used in articles are included in the Creative Commons license unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If the material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission directly from the license holder to reproduce the material.