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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 60(7)

Oxic–anoxic transition of benthic fluxes from the coastal marine environment (Gulf of Trieste, northern Adriatic Sea)

Jadran Faganeli A and Nives Ogrinc B C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Marine Biological Station, National Institute of Biology, Fornace 41, 6330 Piran, Slovenia.

B Department of Environmental Sciences, Jozef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.

C Corresponding author. Email: nives.ogrinc@ijs.si

Marine and Freshwater Research 60(7) 700-711 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF08065
Submitted: 1 March 2008  Accepted: 18 February 2009   Published: 28 July 2009

Abstract

The influence of O2 concentration on mineralisation processes was examined by sediment incubation experiments under controlled laboratory conditions over a sequence of oxic, anoxic and then reoxidising conditions. Sediments were studied from five locations representing marine, lagoonal and brackish environments in the Gulf of Trieste (northern Adriatic Sea). A complete depletion of dissolved O2 and nitrate were observed after ~6 –15 days in marine and lagoonal sediments, and after 5 days in brackish sediments. During the reoxygenation phase, nitrification occurred at some sites, as evidenced by increases in NO3– concentrations, but not at other sites, indicating an inhibited recovery response to intermittent oxic conditions. NH4+ and PO43– regeneration during mineralisation was much more extensive in sediments overlain by oxygen-depleted waters, driving additional eutrophication. During reoxygenation, an influx of phosphate was observed in all three sedimentary environments, removing soluble phosphorus through coagulation and finally precipitation. Two degraded organic matter (OM) types could be distinguished: OM degraded under oxic conditions in marine and brackish sediments v. OM rapidly degraded under anoxic conditions in lagoon sediments.

Additional keywords: brackish, lagoon, marine, northern Adriatic, oxic–anoxic mineralisation.


Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by the Slovenian Research Agency under Research Program: P1–0143 – Cycling of nutrients and contaminants in the environment, mass balances and modelling of environmental processes and risk analysis. We also acknowledge students in the Geomicrobiology Course at the University of Ljubljana for their help in preparing incubation experiments. The authors thank Prof. Lynn M. Walter for linguistic corrections. We also thank two anonymous reviewers, Prof. Andrew Boulton and Ellen L. Petticrew (MFR Guest Editor) for their comments and suggestions which improved the quality of paper.


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