Reconstructing past tidal dynamics and sediment transport on the Patagonian Shelf: implications for Blue Carbon

Mapping and understanding the distribution of seabed sediments in shelf seas is crucial for sustainable coastal management, offshore activities, and assessing and conserving Blue Carbon stocks. Fine-grained sediments, such as mud, play a vital role in long-term organic carbon storage, and so it is essential to map and measure the extent of these carbon-rich deposits across shelf seas. However, despite their importance in the global carbon cycle, many regional shelf seas, such as the Patagonian Shelf, remain poorly studied. We present a novel high-resolution palaeotidal model for the Patagonian Shelf and consider how changing tidal dynamics since the Last Glacial Maximum have contributed to the development and preservation of mud deposits across the shelf. The simulations are compared with existing seabed substrate data to identify correlations between spatial and temporal changes in tidally driven parameters with the locations of muddy, often carbon-rich, deposits. We utilise observational data gathered through an extensive data mining exercise of the region, which includes grain size data and total organic carbon data. This work both enhances understanding of the region's palaeoenvironmental dynamics and highlights opportunities for future research, including synthetic mapping approaches and carbon stock analyses.