ALBERT

Description: Dissolved silicon isotope compositions (d30Si) have been analysed for the first time in groundwaters of beach sediments, which represent a subterranean estuary with fresh groundwater discharge from a freshwater reservoir and mixing with recirculated seawater. The fresh groundwater reservoir has high and variable dissolved silica concentrations between 136 and 736 µM, but homogeneous d30Si of +1.0 ± 0.15 per mil. By contrast, the seawater is strongly depleted in dissolved silica with concentrations of 3 µM, and consequently characterised by high d30Si of +3.0 per mil. The beach groundwaters are variably enriched in dissolved silica compared to seawater (23-192 µM), and concentrations increase with depth at all sampling sites. The corresponding d30Si values are highly variable (+0.3 per mil to +2.2 per mil) and decrease with depth at each site. All groundwater d30Si values are lower than seawater and most values are lower than dissolved d30Si of freshwater discharge indicating a significant amount of lithogenic silica dissolution in beach sediments. In contrast to open North Sea sediments, diatom dissolution or formation of authigenic silica in beach sediments is very low (ca. 5 µmol Si g). Silica discharge from the beach to the coastal ocean is estimated as approximately 210 mol Si yr per meter shoreline. Considering the extent of coastline this is, at least for the study area, a significant amount of the total Si budget and amounts to ca. 1% of river and 3.5% of backbarrier tidal flat area Si input.

Description: Barium (Ba) is a trace element which occurs predominantly as barite mineral (BaSO4) in the marine environment. Previous work suggests that barite concentrations are related to the organic carbon flux and marine biological debris in the water column suggesting a direct or indirect involvement in the marine biological cycling. In addition, barite has a high preservation rate (~30%) in sediments and it is less affected by early diagenesis than other proxies for productivity such as carbonates (~10%) and organic carbon (~1%), for example. Therefore, Ba is considered an excellent proxy for ocean (paleo)productivity. However, correlating barite to productivity involves some caveats. Specifically, the post-depositional formation of barite in oxic sediments can lead to Ba release into porewaters under anoxic conditions, which can form barite again under oxic conditions. This diagenetic formation is not correlated to export production as the seawater authigenic barite formed with decaying organic matter in the water column. Therefore, the main goal of this work is to briefly review the marine Ba cycle and highlight its importance for (paleo)productivity research.

Description: Dissolved silicon isotope compositions (δ30Si) have been analysed for the first time in groundwaters of beach sediments, which represent a subterranean estuary with fresh groundwater discharge from a freshwater reservoir and mixing with recirculated seawater. The fresh groundwater reservoir has high and variable dissolved silica concentrations between 136 and 736 μM, but homogeneous δ30Si of +1.0 ± 0.15‰. By contrast, the seawater is strongly depleted in dissolved silica with concentrations of 3 μM, and consequently characterised by high δ30Si of +3.0‰. The beach groundwaters are variably enriched in dissolved silica compared to seawater (23–192 μM), and concentrations increase with depth at all sampling sites. The corresponding δ30Si values are highly variable (+0.3‰ to +2.2‰) and decrease with depth at each site. All groundwater δ30Si values are lower than seawater and most values are lower than dissolved δ30Si of freshwater discharge indicating a significant amount of lithogenic silica dissolution in beach sediments. In contrast to open North Sea sediments, diatom dissolution or formation of authigenic silica in beach sediments is very low (ca. 5 μmol Si g−1). Silica discharge from the beach to the coastal ocean is estimated as approximately 210 mol Si yr−1 per meter shoreline. Considering the extent of coastline this is, at least for the study area, a significant amount of the total Si budget and amounts to ca. 1% of river and 3.5% of backbarrier tidal flat area Si input.