Biogeochemical processes controlling methane in gassy coastal sediments—Part 2: groundwater flow control of acoustic turbidity in Eckernförde Bay Sediments

To understand the origin of the methane distributions in sediments of Eckernförde Bay, three sites were sampled in May 1994 for determination of methane, sulfate and chloride concentrations in the sediment porewaters. In much of the Bay, bubbles of biogenic methane gas within the sediments lead to widespread ‘acoustic turbidity’ seen in acoustic surveys, masking the sedimentary structure below the gassy horizon. Acoustic windows, where the gas does not appear to be present, occur in several locations in the Bay, often surrounded by acoustically turbid sediments. Pockmarks, shallow depressions in the sediment, are also found in Bay sediments and may show acoustic turbidity at even shallower depths below the interface than surrounding sediments. One site of each type was sampled in this study. The site probably representative of much of the bay below 20 m water depth, revealed methane saturated conditions by about 75 cm depth below the interface, confirming inferences from acoustic scattering data that free gas was present in the sediment. Above this, the methane concentration profile was concave-upward, indicative of methane oxidation in the overlying, sulfate-reducing sediments. These porewaters showed a slightly decreasing chlorinity with depth. At an acoustic window site, methane concentrations rose to a maximum at about 125 cm depth, but did not reach saturation. Below this depth they decreased in a concave-down pattern. Chloride concentrations decreased markedly with depth, indicative of vertical freshwater flow from below. The third site was a pockmark exhibiting very shallow acoustic turbidity at about 25 cm depth. Here methane concentrations rose to exceed saturation within 25 cm depth below the interface and the porewaters became almost fresh by 1.5 m depth, indicative of a stronger flow of freshwater from below. These groundwater flows have competing effects on the methane inventory. They help exclude sulfate from the sediment, allowing the earlier/shallower onset of methanogenesis, but they also aid loss of methane through advection. A diagenetic model that couples the biogeochemistry of sulfate and methane is used to explain the presence or absence of methane gas in these sediments in relation to the flow rate of fresh groundwater from below. Model results indicate that acoustic windows within otherwise acoustically turbid sediments of the bay are likely due to relatively higher rates of vertical advection of fresh groundwater. The gassy pockmark, however, with an even higher vertical advection rate, seems to require the input of additional reactive organic carbon to explain its vertical methane distribution.     

Effect of atmospheric pressure and temperature on entrapped gas content in peat

Entrapped biogenic gas in peat can greatly affect peatland biogeochemical and hydrological processes by altering volumetric water content, peat buoyancy, and ‘saturated’ hydraulic conductivity, and by generating over‐pressure zones. These over‐pressure zones further affect hydraulic gradients which influence water and nutrient flow direction and rate. The dynamics of entrapped gas are of global interest because the loss of this gas to the atmosphere via ebullition (bubbling) is likely the dominant transport mechanism of methane (CH₄) to the atmosphere from peatlands, which are the largest natural terrestrial source per annum of atmospheric CH₄. We investigated the relationship between atmospheric pressure and temperature on volumetric gas content (VGC) and CH₄ ebullition using a laboratory peat core incubation experiment. Peat cores were incubated at three temperatures (one core at 4 °C, three cores at 11 °C, and one core at 20 °C) in sealed PVC cylinders, instrumented to measure VGC, pore‐water CH₄ concentrations, and ebullition (volume and CH₄ concentrations). Ebullition events primarily occurred (71% of the time) during periods of falling atmospheric pressure. The duration of the drop in atmospheric pressure had a larger control on ebullition volume than the magnitude of the drop. VGC in the 20 °C core increased from the onset of the experiment and reached a fluctuating but time‐averaged constant level between experiment day 30 and 115. The change in VGC was low for the 11 °C cores for the initial period of the experiment but showed large increases when the growth chamber temperature increased to 20 °C due to a malfunction. The core maintained at 4 °C showed only a small increase in entrapped gas content throughout the experiment. The 20 °C core showed the largest increase in VGC. The increases in VGC occurred despite pore‐water concentrations of CH₄ being below the equilibrium solubility level. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Quantification of seep-related methane gas emissions at Tommeliten,North Sea

Tommeliten is a prominent methane seep area in the Central North Sea. Previous surveys revealed shallow gas-bearing sediments and methane gas ebullition into the water column. In this study, the in situ methane flux at Tommeliten is re-assessed and the potential methane transport to the atmosphere is discussed, with regards to the hydrographic setting and gas bubble modeling. We have compiled previous data, acquired new video and acoustic evidence of gas bubble release, and have measured the methane concentration, and its C-isotopic composition in the water column. Parametric subbottom sonar data reveal the three-dimensional extent of shallow gas and morphologic features relevant for gas migration. Five methane ebullition areas are identified and the main seepage area appears to be 21 times larger than previously estimated. Our video, hydroacoustic, subbottom, and chemical data suggest that ～1.5×10⁶ mol CH₄/yr (～26 tons CH₄/yr) of methane gas is being released from the seepage area of Tommeliten. Methane concentration profiles in the vicinity of the gas seeps show values of up to 268 nM (～100 times background) close to the seafloor. A decrease in δ¹³C-CH₄ values at 40 m water depth indicates an unknown additional biogenic methane source within the well oxygenated thermocline between 30 and 40 m water depth. Numerical modeling of the methane bubbles due to their migration and dissolution was performed to estimate the bubble-derived vertical methane transport, the fate of this methane in the water column, and finally the flux to the atmosphere. Modeling indicates that less than ～4% of the gas initially released at the seafloor is transported via bubbles into the mixed layer and, ultimately, to the atmosphere. However, because of the strong seasonality of mixing in the North Sea, this flux is expected to increase as mixing increases, and almost all of the methane released at the seafloor could be transferred into the atmosphere in the stormy fall and winter time.     

金星大气声波传播特性研究以及光学遥感

行星地震能够在大气中激发声波,该波动携带地震信息在大气中上传,可以作为行星地震监测研究的示踪目标.本文研究了不同频率的声波,在金星背景大气条件下的上传特征.通过计算大气密度分布、大气黏滞性和热传导效应引起的声波振幅变化,得到不同频率声波的振幅高度剖面.研究发现低频声波能够上传到较高高度,且振幅出现显著放大.根据振幅的高度分布以及金星光学辐射特征可以得到,通过光学遥感的方式探测金星声波扰动时,所选波段对应的辐射高度应为90 km附近及以上,并据此筛选了探测的可用频段.该研究结果为金星地质活动光学遥感探测的参数选择提供了参考.

     

天然气水合物体系的相平衡及甲烷溶解度计算

海洋环境中天然气水合物的形成除了合适的温压条件外,还必须有充分的甲烷供给.本文介绍了甲烷-水体系的甲烷饱和溶解度、水合物体系中甲烷水合物溶解度计算方法.在气-液二相平衡甲烷饱和溶解度计算中,关键在于状态方程的选择和合适的混合规则的运用,Duan的计算模型在温度、压力和盐度变化上都具有很大的适用性,且易于应用.在含水合物的相平衡体系中,在已知组分和假定可能存在相的前提下,可利用模拟退火算法优化总吉布斯自由能,确定是二相还是三相体系,并求解甲烷水合物溶解度.在海水环境下盐的存在使平衡发生移动,利用德拜—休克尔理论或Pitzer电解质溶液理论校正盐度对于海水活度的影响,求解海水环境中甲烷水合物溶解度.基于气-液二相平衡理论的K-K方程,在临近水合物生成条件下实验或计算确定亨利常数等参数后,可计算三相平衡甲烷水合物溶解度,且简单易用.     

光纤地下水动态监测系统的初步研究

深井中地下水监测是地震预报的一种重要手段。本文初步研究了一个光纤地下水动态多参量监测系统。该系统测量参量包括水温、混浊度、气泡度、酸碱度、氢气浓度、甲烷浓度、岩石声辐射以及它们的分布。     

Low-Cost Apparatus for On-Site Monitoring of Methane in Ground Water

An upsurge in oil- and gas-well drilling in northwestern Pennsylvania and western New York has been accompanied by several incidents of contamination of ground water by methane. Determining which well is causing the contamination is extremely difficult if more than one gas or oil well is present in the area.
The fact that the solubility of methane decreases as the pressure on ground water decreases provides a quantitative basis for monitoring changes in the amount of methane in the ground water. Quantitative measurements of the volume of methane given off by ground water pumped from a well as the water enters atmospheric pressure permit detection of temporal changes in the gas content which are too subtle to be detected visually. These gas volume changes may, in some cases, be correlated with variations in the pressure of methane in the annulus of nearby individual gas/oil wells and thus may provide a means of pinpointing the gas/oil well that is causing the methane contamination.
The basic principle of the gas-volume monitoring apparatus (GVMA) described in this paper is that as a measured amount of ground water enters atmospheric pressure the gas which comes out of solution is trapped and measured. The GVMA can be constructed of materials costing less than $100 and requires no special skills to assemble or operate. In a recent study conducted in a western New York village, four homeowners were able to collect quantitative gas-volume data from their household water wells daily in about one-half hour. Unlike laboratory analyses for dissolved methane, there is no cost involved in monitoring with the GVMA beyond the initial instrument cost and operator time. Another advantage is that the data are available immediately.     

Geochemical constraints on the methane seep activity in western slope of the middle Okinawa Trough,the East China Sea

Anaerobic oxidation of methane and sulfate reduction was studied in the pore waters of four cores at two stations of the middle Okinawa Trough. Pore water vertical distributions of sulfate, methane, sulfide, total alkalinity, ammonium, and phosphate were determined in this study. Our results show strong linear sulfate concentration gradients of 6.83 mmol/L m?1 in Core A and 5.96 mmol/L m?1 in Core C, which were collected from two stations. Concurrent variations of methane, total alkalinity and hydrogen sulfide all exhibit steep increases with depth at both cores, which indicate active methane seep activities around two stations. Pore water ammonium and phosphate concentrations reveal minor influences of organic matter degradation on sulfate reduction at two stations. Sulfate methane interface(SMI) was extrapolated from linear sulfate profiles in methane seep cores. Shallower SMI depths(A: 4.9 mbsf; C: 5.4 mbsf) indicate strong methane fluxes and active anaerobic oxidation of methane in the underlying sediments.     

Geotechnical properties and behavior of high-porosity, organic-rich sediments in Eckernförde Bay, Germany

The organically rich, fine-grained, very soft, high porosity sediments in the inner portion of Eckernförde Bay, Germany have varying amounts of methane gas, with the horizon of gas fluctuating vertically on a seasonal cycle. The sharp vertical gradient in water content, with values exceeding 500% at the sediment–water interface, and corresponding gradient in density can be expected to cause a significant subbottom acoustic impedance contrast in these surficial sediments. Equations are presented to characterize geotechnical property variations of the upper 5 m. The upper 1.5 m exhibits appreciable ‘apparent’ overconsolidation with a trend toward a normally consolidated stress state at 2.5 m depth. The coefficient of permeability of the upper 40 cm is low (4×10^-6 cm s^-1) and the sediment is highly compressible with compression indices of 2.7–6.8. Triaxial compression test results indicate that the sediment behaves as a normally consolidated clay with a low friction angle (22°). The rheological behavior of the upper 20–30 cm, determined with a small vane device, is indicative of a shear-thinning material, implying that the resistance to penetration decreases with increasing velocity.     

海洋环境甲烷水合物溶解度及其对水合物发育特征的控制

除合适的温度和压力条件外,甲烷水合物的形成还需要有充足的甲烷供给,沉积物孔隙水中的甲烷浓度必须大于甲烷水合物的溶解度.本文建立了水合物－水－游离气三相体系、水合物－水二相体系、气－水二相体系的甲烷溶解度计算优选方法,计算确定了水合物系统的甲烷溶解度-深度相图,依此划分出游离气、溶解气、水-水合物、水-水合物-游离气四个甲烷不同相态分布区.对水合物脊ODP1249和1250钻位、布莱克海台ODP997钻位稳定带甲烷水合物含量和稳定带之下游离气含量进行了计算.ODP1249浅部13.5～72.4 mbsf(mbsf表示海底以下深度)的甲烷水合物是沉积物孔隙体积的10%～61%,ODP1250钻位35～1065 mbsf的甲烷水合物约为孔隙体积的0.7%～1.9%,水合物层之下游离气层厚约22 m,游离气含量约占孔隙的4%.布莱克海台ODP997钻位的浅部146.9 mbsf处无水合物发育,202.4～433.3 mbsf之间水合物占孔隙体积的约5%～7%,水合物层之下游离气层厚约80 m,游离甲烷含量为孔隙的0.2%～28%.     

The influence of gas bubbles on sediment acoustic properties: in situ, laboratory, and theoretical results from Eckernförde Bay, Baltic sea

Acoustic turbidity caused by the presence of gas bubbles in seafloor sediments is a common occurrence worldwide,but is as yet poorly understood. The Coastal Benthic Boundary Layer experiment in the Baltic off northern Germany was planned to better characterize the acoustic response of a bubbly sediment horizon. In this context, in situ measurements of compressional wave speed and attenuation were made over the frequency range of 5–400 kHz in gassy sediments of Eckernförde Bay. Dispersion of compressional speed data was used to determine the upper limit of the frequency of methane bubble resonance at between 20 and 25 kHz. These data, combined with bubble size distributions determined from CT scans of sediments in cores retained at ambient pressure, yield estimates of effective bubble sizes of 0.3–5.0 mm equivalent radius. The highly variable spatial distribution of bubble volume and bubble size distribution is used to reconcile the otherwise contradictory frequency-dependent speed and attenuation data with theory. At acoustic frequencies above resonance (>25 kHz) compressional speed is unaffected by bubbles and scattering from bubbles dominates attenuation. At frequencies below resonance (<1 kHz) ‘compressibility effects’ dominate, speed is much lower (250 m s^-1) than bubble-free sediments, and attenuation is dominated by scattering from impedance contrasts. Between 1.5 and 25 kHz bubble resonance greatly affects speed and attenuation. Compressional speed in gassy sediments (1100–1200 m s^-1) determined at 5–15 kHz is variable and higher than predicted by theory (<250 m s^-1). These higher measured speeds result from two factors: speeds are an average of lower speeds in gassy sediments and higher speeds in bubble-free sediments; and the volume of smaller-sized bubbles which contribute to the lower observed speeds is much lower than total gas volume. The frequency-dependent acoustic propagation is further complicated as the mixture of bubble sizes selectively strips energy near bubble resonance frequencies (very high attenuation) allowing lower and higher frequency energy to propagate. It was also demonstrated that acoustic characterization of gassy sediments can be used to define bubble size distribution and fractional volume.     

基于泥沙因子的水深遥感反演模型

针对悬浮泥沙影响水体遥感测深精度的问题,选择长江口南港至南槽为研究区,通过对遥感测深方法研究,结合悬浮泥沙光谱特性分析,把"泥沙因子"引入到水体遥感测深反演模型中,研究表明:1)单因子非线性模型中,指数模型对0-2m的水深反演效果较好,对数模型对2-7m的水深反演较好,二次回归模型对7-14m的水深反演效果较好:2)建立的BP人工神经网络水深反演模型综合了多个波段具有的水深信息,模型的反演效果好于单因子非线性模型;3)实验构建的泥沙遥感参数综合了不同波段具有的悬沙信息,削弱了叶绿素和外界环境条件对泥沙信息的干扰,可较好地反映悬沙浓度变化特征;4)建立的BP人工神经网络泥沙因子水深反演模型削弱了悬浮泥沙对遥感测深的影响,模型实际反演能力明显优于单因子非线性模型和多因子BP人工神经网络水深反演模型.     

海底天然气渗漏的地球物理特征及识别方法

海底天然气渗漏是在海洋环境中广泛分布的自然现象.海底天然气渗漏可以指示沉积层中的烃类聚集带,渗漏出的大量气体（主要是甲烷）可能影响全球的气候变化,此外,与海底渗漏相关的浅层气改变了海底沉积物的土工性质,可能对海底工程构成威胁.因此海底渗漏研究意义重大.海底天然气渗漏不仅影响海底沉积物的物理性质,而且还极大地改变海底地形地貌,它能在海底形成麻坑、泥火山、冷泉碳酸盐岩以及化学自养生物群落等现象.在海底渗漏发生的地方,地形地貌特征可以在海洋测深和逆向散射数据上得到反映;沉积物的声学特征可以在地震剖面上得到反映,如形成声混浊、声空白、亮点、多次波、速度下拉等;有些渗漏在海面形成油渍膜,油渍膜可以在合成孔径雷达图像上得到反映.根据海底渗漏的上述地球物理特征,可以识别出可能渗漏区域,海底渗漏的证实需要用到海底观测和取样分析资料.     

Experimental study on the relation between the water content of surface soil and theacoustic wave

Introduction Earthquake is not an isolated event. The focal region is not a closed system either. It is able to exchange energy or material with the medium outside this region. These kinds of exchange may cause various physical and chemical effects, so it is possible to get precursory signals by using space remote sensing technology. Many scholars (QIANG, et al, 1990; GENG, et al, 1992; XU, et al, 1995) have carried out some preliminary researches and experiments on the mechanism of therm…     

The importance of ocean temperature to global biogeochemistry

Variations in the mean temperature of the ocean, on time scales from millennial to millions of years, in the past and projected for the future, are large enough to impact the geochemistry of the carbon, oxygen, and methane geochemical systems. In each system, the time scale of the temperature perturbation is key. On time frames of 1-100 ky, atmospheric CO₂ is controlled by the ocean. CO₂ temperature-dependent solubility and greenhouse forcing combine to create an amplifying feedback with ocean temperature; the CaCO₃ cycle increases this effect somewhat on time scales longer than ∼5-10 ky. The CO₂/T feedback can be seen in the climate record from Vostok, and a model including the temperature feedback predicts that 10% of the fossil fuel CO₂ will reside in the atmosphere for longer than 100 ky. Timing is important for oxygen, as well; the atmosphere controls the ocean on short time scales, but ocean anoxia controls atmospheric pO₂ on million-year time scales and longer. Warming the ocean to Cretaceous temperatures might eventually increase pO₂ by approximately 25%, in the absence of other perturbations. The response of methane clathrate to climate change in the coming century will probably be small, but on longer time scales of 1-10 ky, there may be a positive feedback with ocean temperature, amplifying the long-term climate impact of anthropogenic CO₂ release.     

Removing sun glint from optical remote sensing images of shallow rivers

Sun glint is the specular reflection of light from the water surface, which often causes unusually bright pixel values that can dominate fluvial remote sensing imagery and obscure the water‐leaving radiance signal of interest for mapping bathymetry, bottom type, or water column optical characteristics. Although sun glint is ubiquitous in fluvial remote sensing imagery, river‐specific methods for removing sun glint are not yet available. We show that existing sun glint‐removal methods developed for multispectral images of marine shallow water environments over‐correct shallow portions of fluvial remote sensing imagery resulting in regions of unreliable data along channel margins. We build on existing marine glint‐removal methods to develop a river‐specific technique that removes sun glint from shallow areas of the channel without over‐correction by accounting for non‐negligible water‐leaving near‐infrared radiance. This new sun glint‐removal method can improve the accuracy of spectrally‐based depth retrieval in cases where sun glint dominates the at‐sensor radiance. For an example image of the gravel‐bed Snake River, Wyoming, USA, observed‐versus‐predicted R² values for depth retrieval improved from 0.66 to 0.76 following sun glint removal. The methodology presented here is straightforward to implement and could be incorporated into image processing workflows for multispectral images that include a near‐infrared band. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Geological setting as background for methane distribution in Holocene mud deposits, Århus Bay,Denmark

Detailed acoustic mapping have been carried out in the Århus Bay in order to establish the general Late Weichselian and Holocene stratigraphy, and to map the gas related acoustic blanking.The mapping results show that the oldest seismic unit is glacial till, probably related to the latest glacial advance in the region. The glacial till is covered by late-glacial ice-lake clay and silt reaching a thickness of up to 10 m. In the deeper part of the bay, early Holocene organic material and peat has been recorded in a few cores. A thin seismic unit is observed, which probably represents an early Holocene lowstand period, when most of the Århus Bay was dry land. The three upper seismic units are related to the Holocene transgression of the region representing different hydrographical conditions. The lowermost unit (Marine unit 1) partly drapes the basin area with clay sediments and partly shows prograding sandy coastal deposits around glacial ridges. Marine shells from this unit date back to 8700 cal. years BP which are the oldest marine shells found south of the threshold in the northern Great Belt. The next unit (Marine unit 2) consists in general of mud to sandy mud, which cover most of the western central part of the Århus Bay and in some places reach the present seabed in areas of erosion or non-deposition. The distribution of the youngest seismic unit (mud, Marine unit 3) is confined to the sub-recent to recent sedimentation basins in the eastern central part of the area. Acoustical blanking shows that the methane production takes place in the Holocene marine sediments. A map of the distribution and depth to free methane in the muddy sediments has been produced. Combined information from the different seismic equipment used allowed a mapping of the distribution and depth to free gas in the intervals 0.5–2, 2–4 and >4 m. The map shows that acoustic blanking is found in the central part of Århus Bay about 4 m below the seabed. In areas with high sedimentation rate, the acoustic blanking is found closer to the sediment surface and in selected key stations, pore-water chemistry have documented that depth to acoustical blanking is comparable to the methane saturation depth.Barotropic induced inflow dominates the present current system in the semi-enclosed Århus Bay. The inflow events create turbulence in the outer eastern parts of the bay, followed by high sedimentation rates. The recent situation is reflected in the seabed sediments in the eastern part of the bay, which are characterised as soft sandy mud deposits, with gas bubbles close to the seabed.Seismic investigations have not previously been used to identify recent sedimentation areas and the most vulnerable areas in respect to possible escape of methane and toxic hydrogen-sulphide. The results of the present survey show that future monitoring must be focused in shallow gas areas in the eastern-most part of Århus Bay.     

Estimating turbidity and total suspended matter in the Adour River plume (South Bay of Biscay) using MODIS 250-m imagery

The Basque coastal waters (South Bay of Biscay) are directly influenced by the Adour River freshwater plume. The Adour outflow leads to important variations of suspended matter concentrations and turbidity, which in turn may affect biological productivity and water quality. This study aims at both developing specific algorithms and testing the efficiency of atmospherically corrected MODIS-Aqua 250-m surface reflectance product (MYD09) to map total suspended matter concentrations and turbidity within the Adour coastal region. First, regional empirical algorithms based on in-situ data were tested to retrieve the concentration of total suspended matter and turbidity from the remote sensing reflectance. Then, the respective sensitivity of MODIS surface reflectance bands 1 and 2 for water quality application was investigated as well as the quality of atmospheric corrections. Finally, selected algorithms were applied to the MYD09 product. The resulting 250-m resolution maps were then compared to 1000-m maps produced by IFREMER and comparisons between satellite measurements and in-situ sampling points were performed. Results show that MODIS-Aqua band 1 (620–670 nm) is appropriate for predicting turbidity and total suspended matter concentrations using polynomial regression models, whilst band 2 is unadapted. Comparison between total suspended matter concentration 250-m resolution maps and mineral suspended matter 1000-m maps (generated by IFREMER) produced consistent results. A high correlation was obtained between turbidity measured in-situ and turbidity retrieved from MODIS-Aqua satellite data.     

Spectrally based remote sensing of river bathymetry

This paper evaluates the potential for remote mapping of river bathymetry by (1) examining the theoretical basis of a simple, ratio‐based technique for retrieving depth information from passive optical image data; (2) performing radiative transfer simulations to quantify the effects of suspended sediment concentration, bottom reflectance, and water surface state; (3) assessing the accuracy of spectrally based depth retrieval under field conditions via ground‐based reflectance measurements; and (4) producing bathymetric maps for a pair of gravel‐bed rivers from hyperspectral image data. Consideration of the relative magnitudes of various radiance components allowed us to define the range of conditions under which spectrally based depth retrieval is appropriate: the remotely sensed signal must be dominated by bottom‐reflected radiance. We developed a simple algorithm, called optimal band ratio analysis (OBRA), for identifying pairs of wavelengths for which this critical assumption is valid and which yield strong, linear relationships between an image‐derived quantity X and flow depth d. OBRA of simulated spectra indicated that water column optical properties were accounted for by a shorter‐wavelength numerator band sensitive to scattering by suspended sediment while depth information was provided by a longer‐wavelength denominator band subject to strong absorption by pure water. Field spectra suggested that bottom reflectance was fairly homogeneous, isolating the effect of depth, and that radiance measured above the water surface was primarily reflected from the bottom, not the water column. OBRA of these data, 28% of which were collected during a period of high turbidity, yielded strong X versus d relations (R² from 0·792 to 0·976), demonstrating that accurate depth retrieval is feasible under field conditions. Moreover, application of OBRA to hyperspectral image data resulted in spatially coherent, hydraulically reasonable bathymetric maps, though negative depth estimates occurred along channel margins where pixels were mixed. This study indicates that passive optical remote sensing could become a viable tool for measuring river bathymetry. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Temporal and spatial variability in the Guadalquivir estuary: a challenge for real-time telemetry

Meteorological, hydrological, and hydrodynamic data for 3 years (2008–2010) have been used to document and explain the temporal and spatial variability of the physical–biogeochemical interactions in the Guadalquivir River Estuary. A real-time, remote monitoring network has been deployed along the course of the river between its mouth and Seville to study a broad range of temporal scales (semidiurnal, diurnal, fortnightly, and seasonal). This network consists of eight hydrological monitoring stations capable of measuring temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and chlorophyll fluorescence at four depths. In addition, six stations have been deployed to study hydrodynamics, obtaining 20-cell water column current profiles, and there is a meteorological station at the river mouth providing data for understanding atmospheric interactions. Completing this data-gathering network, there are several moorings (tide gauges, current/wave sensors, and a thermistor chain) deployed in the estuary and river mouth. Various sources of physical forcing, such as wind, tide-associated currents, and river discharge, are responsible for the particular temporal and spatial patterns of turbidity and salinity found in the estuary. These variables force the distribution of biogeochemical variables, such as dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll fluorescence. In particular, episodes of elevated turbidity (when suspended particle matter concentration >3,000 mg/l) have been detected by the network, together with episodes of declining values of salinity and dissolved oxygen. All these patterns are related to river discharge and tidal dynamics (spring/neap and high/low tide).