Animo Acid Composition of Suspended Particles, Sediment-Trap Material, andBenthic Sediment in the Potomac Estuary

摘要

Sediment trap deployments in estuaries provide a method for estimating the amountof organic material transported to the sediments from the euphotic zone. The amino acid composition of suspended particles, benthic sediment, and sediment-trap material collected at 2.4 m, 5.8 m, and 7.9 m depths in the Potomac Estuary was determined in stratified summer waters, and in well-mixed oxygenated waters (DO) in late fall. Analysis of the flux results suggest that resuspension combined with lateral advection from adjacent slopes can account up to 27% of the material in the deep traps when the estuary was well-mixed and unstratified. When the estuary was stratified in late summer, the amino acid carbon produced by primary productivity in the euphotic zone decreased by 85% (86% for total organic carbon) at the pycnocline at 6 m depth, leaving up to 15% of the vertical organic flux available for benthic sediment deposition.