Estuaries are transition zones between inland and coastal waters and thus form unique environments that are affected and modified by natural processes and often through human interventions. Tidally influenced estuaries experience great temporal variabilities in water level, salinity, and suspended particulate matter (SPM) dynamics. Changes in the amount and quality of the organic matter (OM) within the SPM also play a key role in estuarine hydro- and oxygen dynamics, e.g., through microbial degradation processes.
Human activities (e.g., shipping, fisheries, and land reclamation) highly affect estuaries, with interventions like dredging or the reduction of flood plains strongly influencing SPM dynamics and morphology. Also, estuaries are often polluted by nutrients and anthropogenic particles such as microplastics, which alter the biochemistry and have far-reaching ecological impacts. Biochemical processes, such as biofouling, can in turn modify the dynamical properties of particles and thereby influence the transport processes of fine sediments and anthropogenic particles.
This session focuses on the interplay between physical and biogeochemical processes in estuaries and welcomes contributions on the topics of SPM and fluid mud dynamics, particle dynamics (e.g., microplastics), oxygen dynamics, and biogeochemical and microbial processes, using different methodological approaches including, but not limited to, in situ or laboratory measurements, remote sensing or modeling. Interdisciplinary contributions that explore the connections between these different processes are particularly encouraged.