Dissolved Inorganic Carbon (DIC) and Hydrologic Mixing in a Subtropical Riverine Estuary, Southwest Florida, USA
Abstract
Physical and chemical parameters were measured in a subtropical estuary with a blind river source in southwest Florida, United States, to assess seasonal discharge of overland flow and groundwater in hydrologic mixing. Water temperature, pH, salinity, alkalinity, dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), δ18O, and δ13CDIC varied significantly due to seasonal rainfall and climate. Axial distribution of the physical and chemical parameters constrained by tidal conditions during sampling showed that river water at low tide was a mixture of freshwater from overland flow and saline groundwater in the wet season and mostly saline groundwater in the dry season. Relationships between salinity and temperature, δ18O, and DIC for both the dry and wet seasons showed that DIC was most sensitive to seawater mixing in the estuary as DIC changed in concentration between values measured in river water at the tidal front to the most seaward station. A salinity-δ13CDIC model was able to describe seawater mixing in the estuary for the wet season but not for the dry season because river water salinity was higher than that of seawater and the salinity gradient between seawater and river water was small. A DIC-δ13CDIC mixing model was able to describe mixing of carbon from sheet flow and river water at low tide, and river water and seawater at high tide for both wet and dry seasons. The DIC- δ13CDIC model was able to predict the seawater end member DIC for the wet season. The model was not able to predict the seawater end member DIC for the dry season data due to secondary physical and biogeochemical processes that altered estuarine DIC prior to mixing with seawater. The results of this study suggest that DIC and δ13CDIC can provide additional insights into mixing of river water and seawater in estuaries during periods where small salinity gradients between river water and seawater and higher river water salinities preclude the use of salinity-carbon models.
Recommended Citation
E. A. Atekwana et al., "Dissolved Inorganic Carbon (DIC) and Hydrologic Mixing in a Subtropical Riverine Estuary, Southwest Florida, USA," Estuaries, vol. 26, no. 6, pp. 1391 - 1400, Estuarine Research Federation, Dec 2003.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02803648
Department(s)
Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering
Sponsor(s)
IUPUI (Campus). School of Science. Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program
IUPUI (Campus). Center for Earth and Environmental Science
Keywords and Phrases
Estuarine Dynamics; Freshwater; Inorganic Carbon; Mixing; Seawater; Water Chemistry; Florida; North America; United States
Geographic Coverage
Southwest Florida
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
0160-8347
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2003 Estuarine Research Federation, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Dec 2003