Chemical Fluxes at the WaterBottom Boundary
in the Coastal Zone of Seas and Oceans

A. V. Vershinin and A. G. Rozanov

Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

Received April 15, 2002

Abstract—The technique for calculating the flux values (J_is) and the intensities of diagenetic processes, on the
basis of the potentialities of regression analysis, from the results of chemical testing of interstitial waters using
Fick’s law is improved. A constructively new configuration of the installation of “chamber” stations is devel-
oped, namely, a mixing system simulating the surrounding hydrodynamic conditions; usage of background and
auxiliary chambers in addition to the operating one limited by a definite part of the bottom, etc. A new quasi-
stationary mathematical model is developed for estimating the consumption of O₂ by both the sediment and the
near-bottom water layer in the background chamber isolated by a cover from contact with the bottom. The
“chamber” experiments performed (in the closed system) promoted the solution of specific applied and meth-
odological problems: calculation of the average daily balance of O₂; estimation of the features of the oxygen
conditions during the summer flood and the subsequent suffocation; methods for the subdivision of the O₂ con-
sumption in the processes of the respiration of organisms and those of the organic matter mineralization in the
near-bottom water and sediment, as well as estimation of the rate of the ground water filtration. A new method
is developed for converting the exchange parameters of a closed system of a chamber (for J_ins fluxes) to those
of the open system of the bottom (J_out) using different solubilities of hydroquinone in the closed system of the
box (auxiliary chamber) and outside the latter at the sediment surface. The probable ranges of the values of J_out
fluxes are considered from the results obtained, as well as from the known data published using the bicarbonate
ion and dissolved oxygen as examples. For any of the components, depending on the study technique, the
sequence of the flux values is confirmed: J_is < J_ins < J_out.

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