Suspended particulate matter drives the spatial segregation of nitrogen turnover along the hyper-turbid Ems estuary

Schulz, Gesa; Sanders, Tina; van Beusekom, Justus E. E.; Voynova, Yoana G.; Schöl, Andreas; Dähnke, Kirstin

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-2007-2022

Articles | Volume 19, issue 7

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-2007-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-2007-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 7

Research article

|

11 Apr 2022

Research article |

| 11 Apr 2022

Suspended particulate matter drives the spatial segregation of nitrogen turnover along the hyper-turbid Ems estuary

Gesa Schulz, Tina Sanders, Justus E. E. van Beusekom, Yoana G. Voynova, Andreas Schöl, and Kirstin Dähnke

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-2007-2022-supplement

Data sets

Nitrogen turnover in the Ems estuary 2020 Gesa Schulz, Yoana G. Voynova, Marc Metzke, and Leon Schmidt https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.942220

Nitrogen turnover in the Ems estuary 2014 Tina Sanders and Wilhelm Petersen https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.942222

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Short summary

Estuaries can significantly alter nutrient loads before reaching coastal waters. Our study of the heavily managed Ems estuary (Northern Germany) reveals three zones of nitrogen turnover along the estuary with water-column denitrification in the most upstream hyper-turbid part, nitrate production in the middle reaches and mixing/nitrate uptake in the North Sea. Suspended particulate matter was the overarching control on nitrogen cycling in the hyper-turbid estuary.