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Dissolved inorganic carbon cycle in the maximum turbidity zone of the upper Scheldt estuary
Schiettecatte, L.-S.; Frankignoulle, M.; Chou, L.; Borges, A.V. (2004). Dissolved inorganic carbon cycle in the maximum turbidity zone of the upper Scheldt estuary, in: Mees, J. et al. (Ed.) VLIZ Young Scientists' Day, Brugge, Belgium 5 March 2004: book of abstracts. VLIZ Special Publication, 17: pp. 65
In: Mees, J.; Seys, J. (Ed.) (2004). VLIZ Young Scientists' Day, Brugge, Belgium 5 March 2004: book of abstracts. VLIZ Special Publication, 17. Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee (VLIZ): Oostende. X, 148 pp., more
In: VLIZ Special Publication. Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee (VLIZ): Oostende. ISSN 1377-0950, more

Available in  Authors 
Document type: Summary

Keywords
    Environmental factors > Anthropogenic factors
    Organic matter > Carbon > Organic carbon > Dissolved organic matter > Dissolved organic carbon
    Pollution
    Suspended organic matter
    Belgium, Schelde R. [Marine Regions]
    Marine/Coastal

Authors  Top 
  • Schiettecatte, L.-S., more
  • Frankignoulle, M., more
  • Chou, L., more
  • Borges, A.V., more

Abstract
    The Scheldt Estuary is one of the most polluted macro-tidal European estuaries due to a high anthropogenic pressure around its catchment area. High load of suspended organic matter (with at least two third directly related to human activities) associated to a long residence time within the estuary (three months) contribute to an intense bacterial degradation (Wollast, 1988). The most striking feature of this work, compared to the previous studies carried on the Scheldt (Frankignoulle et al.,1996, 1998; Abril et al., 2000) is the continuous measurement of the CO2 partial pressure of the surface brackish water in the maximum turbidity zone of the inner Scheldt Estuary since November 2002 to nowadays. Our results show that pCO2 in the surface brackish water is outstandingly high, ranging from 2000 to 10000 ppm, which represents up to 2700% of the CO2 atmospheric pressure. CO2 also shows strong meso- and macroscale variabilities and on an annual scale it appears that pCO2 is mainly controlled by temperature and heterotrophy.

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