Publishing House SB RAS:

Publishing House SB RAS:

Address of the Publishing House SB RAS:
Morskoy pr. 2, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia



Advanced Search

Russian Geology and Geophysics

2014 year, number 5-6

GEOCHEMICAL INTERACTION BETWEEN THE FRESHWATER AND MARINE HYDROSPHERES

V.V. Gordeev, A.P. Lisitzin
P.P. Shirs hov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nakhimovskii prosp. 36, Moscow, 117997, Russia
Keywords: River input, ocean waters, concentrations of chemical elements, marginal filter, transformation of river sedimentary substances in the river-sea mixing zone, interrelations between the main parameters of freshwater and marine hydrospheres, geochemical system of elements in the hydrosphere

Abstract

The results of more than 40 years long authors’ investigations in the field of the freshwater (river input) and marine (ocean waters) hydrospheres are summarized. The latest estimations of the global average concentrations of many chemical elements in river water and suspended matter and in ocean water and suspended matter are presented. It is shown that particulate suspended forms of many elements are predominant in river waters (“rivers are the kingdom of suspended forms of elements”), while their dissolved forms prevail in ocean waters (“ocean is the kingdom of dissolved forms of elements”). Sedimentary and biogeochemical processes of the river material transformation in the river-sea mixing zone (the so-called “marginal filter of the ocean”) were studied thoroughly. It was shown that radical quantitative and qualitative changes of dissolved and particulate suspended substances take place in this zone, resulting in the governed transformation of dissolved forms into suspended particulate forms and their following deposition on the bottom. The first data on the losses of 35 chemical elements in the river-sea mixing zone are presented. These data prove that the concentrations of dissolved elements in river and ocean waters are in regular and close relationship with their losses in the river-sea mixing zone and with the types of element distribution in ocean water column (conservative, biogenic, and lithogenic). This indicates the existence of a geochemical system in the entire (freshwater and marine) hydrosphere, which calls for deep and detailed investigations.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rgg.2014.05.004