Hurricanes accelerate dissolved organic carbon cycling in coastal ecosystems
- 1Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Sanya, China (yange@idsse.ac.cn)
- 2Department of Marine Sciences, Texas A&M University Galveston Campus, Galveston, TX, USA
- 3Department of Marine Biology, Texas A&M University Galveston Campus, Galveston, TX, USA
- 4Department of Oceanography, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, US
Extreme weather events such as tropical storms and hurricanes deliver large amounts of
freshwater (stormwater and river discharge) and associated dissolved organic carbon (DOC)
to estuaries and the coastal ocean, affecting water quality and carbon budgets. Hurricane
Harvey produced an unprecedented 1000-year flood event in 2017 that inundated the heavily
urbanized and industrialized Houston/Galveston region (Texas, USA). Within a week, storm-
associated floodwater delivered 105±10 Gg of terrigenous dissolved organic carbon (tDOC)
to Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico continental shelves. In-situ decay constants of
8.75-28.33 yr -1 resulted in the biomineralization of ~70% of tDOC within one month of
discharge from the flood plain. The high removal efficiency of tDOC was linked to a diverse
microbial community capable of degrading a wide repertoire of dissolved organic matter
(DOM), and suggested hurricane-induced flood events affect net CO2 exchange and nutrient
budgets in estuarine watersheds and coastal seas.
How to cite: Yan, G., Labonté, J., Quigg, A., and Kaiser, K.: Hurricanes accelerate dissolved organic carbon cycling in coastal ecosystems, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-6820, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-6820, 2020
