TY - JOUR

T1 - A State-Of-The-Art Perspective on the Characterization of Subterranean Estuaries at the Regional Scale

AU - Moosdorf, Nils

AU - Böttcher, Michael Ernst

AU - Adyasari, Dini

AU - Erkul, Ercan

AU - Gilfedder, Benjamin S.

AU - Greskowiak, Janek

AU - Jenner, Anna Kathrina

AU - Kotwicki, Lech

AU - Massmann, Gudrun

AU - Müller-Petke, Mike

AU - Oehler, Till

AU - Post, Vincent

AU - Prien, Ralf

AU - Scholten, Jan

AU - Siemon, Bernhard

AU - Ehlert von Ahn, Cátia Milene

AU - Walther, Marc

AU - Waska, Hannelore

AU - Wunderlich, Tina

AU - Mallast, Ulf

N1 - Funding information: This publication is a result of the DFG supported KiSNet project (MA7041/6-1). MEB and AKJ wish to thank DFG for financial support during research training group BALTIC TRANSCOAST (GRK 2000) and MEB and CvA the DAAD for a Ph.D. stipend for a stay of CvA at IOW. This is BALTIC TRANSCOAST publication No. GRK 2000/0045. HW was funded by the Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur (MWK) in the scope of project “BIME” (ZN3184). JS acknowledges the support through the SEAMOUNT BONUS project (art. 185), which is funded jointly by the EU and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF, Grant Nos. 03F0771B). The authors acknowledge the helpful review comments by D. Brankovits, G. Chaillou and A. Pain, and the editorial handling by F. Frappart. Finally, the authors would like to express their gratitude to Bill Burnett, who turns 75 this year. Bill inspired many of us to pursue research in the field of SGD and supported wherever he could. Thank you, Bill.

PY - 2021/5/14

Y1 - 2021/5/14

N2 - Subterranean estuaries the, subsurface mixing zones of terrestrial groundwater and seawater, substantially influence solute fluxes to the oceans. Solutes brought by groundwater from land and solutes brought from the sea can undergo biogeochemical reactions. These are often mediated by microbes and controlled by reactions with coastal sediments, and determine the composition of fluids discharging from STEs (i.e., submarine groundwater discharge), which may have consequences showing in coastal ecosystems. While at the local scale (meters), processes have been intensively studied, the impact of subterranean estuary processes on solute fluxes to the coastal ocean remains poorly constrained at the regional scale (kilometers). In the present communication, we review the processes that occur in STEs, focusing mainly on fluid flow and biogeochemical transformations of nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, sulfur and trace metals. We highlight the spatio-temporal dynamics and measurable manifestations of those processes. The objective of this contribution is to provide a perspective on how tracer studies, geophysical methods, remote sensing and hydrogeological modeling could exploit such manifestations to estimate the regional-scale impact of processes in STEs on solute fluxes to the coastal ocean.

AB - Subterranean estuaries the, subsurface mixing zones of terrestrial groundwater and seawater, substantially influence solute fluxes to the oceans. Solutes brought by groundwater from land and solutes brought from the sea can undergo biogeochemical reactions. These are often mediated by microbes and controlled by reactions with coastal sediments, and determine the composition of fluids discharging from STEs (i.e., submarine groundwater discharge), which may have consequences showing in coastal ecosystems. While at the local scale (meters), processes have been intensively studied, the impact of subterranean estuary processes on solute fluxes to the coastal ocean remains poorly constrained at the regional scale (kilometers). In the present communication, we review the processes that occur in STEs, focusing mainly on fluid flow and biogeochemical transformations of nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, sulfur and trace metals. We highlight the spatio-temporal dynamics and measurable manifestations of those processes. The objective of this contribution is to provide a perspective on how tracer studies, geophysical methods, remote sensing and hydrogeological modeling could exploit such manifestations to estimate the regional-scale impact of processes in STEs on solute fluxes to the coastal ocean.

KW - biogeochemistry

KW - coastal aquifer

KW - ecology

KW - geophysics

KW - numerical modeling

KW - submarine groundwater discharge

KW - subterranean estuary

KW - upscaling

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85107047023&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3389/feart.2021.601293

DO - 10.3389/feart.2021.601293

M3 - Review article

AN - SCOPUS:85107047023

VL - 9

JO - Frontiers in Earth Science

JF - Frontiers in Earth Science

SN - 2296-6463

M1 - 601293

ER -