What is it about?
The large river plume associated with the Mississippi and Atchafalaya river system enhances biological productivity and ocean uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Strong wind forcing in March 2010 resulted in an extended impact of the plume resulting in higher regional productivity and carbon uptake.
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Why is it important?
Knowledge about factors that regulate river-enhanced productivity and carbon cycling in coastal margins is important for efforts to develop regional and global carbon budgets and for understanding linkages between export of river-borne terrestrial nutrients and carbon and coastal ecosystem processes.
Perspectives
This is one of the first comprehensive characterizations of the combined effects of wind and river outflow on this productive coastal margin. This region represents an area with a strong signal for carbon uptake and is also subject to recurring bottom water hypoxia that has been linked to river inputs. Efforts to manage hypoxia and its impacts require a more complete understanding of river dynamics and associated biogeochemical effects.
Professor Steven Lohrenz
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Effects of a wind-driven cross-shelf large river plume on biological production and CO2uptake on the Gulf of Mexico during spring, Limnology and Oceanography, August 2013, Wiley,
DOI: 10.4319/lo.2013.58.5.1727.
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