Water-Sediment Exchange of Nutrients During Early Diagenesis and Resuspension of Anoxic Sediments from the Northern Adriatic Sea Shelf.

This paper presents the results of a study on nutrient exchange at the sediment-water interface which is caused by early diagenesis and resuspension of bottom sediments. The research was carried out on anoxic silty-clay sediment cores collected south of the Po river delta (Northern Adriatic Sea, Italy) in late summer.The early diagenetic processes were investigated by means of the integrated study of pore-water chemistry and solid phase composition. Exchange at the sediment-water interface was studied by comparing the fluxes measured in incubated cores with the fluxes calculated by modelling pore-water profiles. Nutrient exchange during resuspension was analysed by simulating a storm event in the laboratory.The high production of nutrients near the sediment-water interface is mainly caused by the anoxic degradation of organic matter and the successive reductions of Mn and Fe-oxyhydroxides and, to a lesser extent, of sulphate. The oxic degradation of organic matter occurs only at the sediment-water interface.In the incubation experiment the increases of phosphate, ammonia, nitrate, silica, and Fe in bottom waters were measured. The comparison between calculated and measured fluxes showed that: a) the fluxes are mainly controlled by molecular diffusion; b) phosphate and Fe sink because of the Fe-oxyhydroxide precipitation and c) nitrification process influences the ammonia and nitrate fluxes.Resuspension caused the release of: a) phosphate through surficial desorption and authigenic apatite dissolution; b) ammonia by means of the oxic degradation of organic matter; and c) dissolved silica generated by biogenic silica dissolution. Resuspension also caused a weak removal of Fe. The more oxic conditions following resuspension favoured the formation of a Fe-oxyhydroxide film at the sediment-water interface which inhibited the phosphate fluxes from sediments to the water column.