Impact of climatic variability on biogeochemical processing of riverine organic carbon in coastal environments

Climate change will alter the annual discharge patterns of world’s rivers, and cause more frequent and more extreme flood events. As river discharge increases and its temporality changes, also changes the quantity and characteristics of the associated riverine organic carbon (OC) loading from the terrestrial system to the coastal seas. Additionally, in recent decades there has been a long-term increase of riverine OC concentrations throughout northern hemisphere. The effect of these pressures on coastal seas is largely unknown, as systematic approaches of linking varying river discharge, increasing OC loading and estuarine carbon cycling are lacking.

The proposed research aims to quantify the couplings between the short-term variations in river discharge, the characteristics of the OC entering the estuarine environment and the response in the estuarine ecosystem. The results will ultimately contribute to gaining fundamental understanding about the climatic drivers of organic carbon cycling in coastal environments.