Benthic Flux

Click on Image for Larger Version Taken from Water-Resources Investigations Report 00-4132

Definitions

Benthic Flux - "Benthic flux (sometimes referred to as internal recycling) represents the transport of dissolved chemical species between the water column and the underlying sediment. Flux of solutes can be either positive (from the sediment into the water column) or negative (from the water column into the sediment). It can vary over multiple temporal and spatial scales." - Topping and others, 2001

Benthic Flux - "Benthic flux q_bf is the rate of flow of some property across the bed of a water body, per unit area of bed, with no limitation on the type of water body or direction of flow. Benthic flux is a vector quantity, where the vector is normal to the bed." - King and others, 2009

Benthic Flux - "The benthic flux is directly proportional to the rate of concentration increase or decrease, the volume of bottom water enclosed within the chamber, and area of the seafloor covered by the chamber." - Jahnke, 2009

Benthic Flux - "When solute concentrations in the water column are higher than those in the bottom sediment pore waters, a negative benthic flux results whereby the substance moves into the sediment ... When concentrations in the water column are lower than those in sediment pore waters, the vertical concentration gradient can physically drive the release of dissolved chemical species from the sediment to the overlying water; a positive benthic flux." - Topping and others, 2001

Benthic - "Of, pertaining to, or living on the bottom or at the greatest depths of a large body of water." - Parker, 1994

Flux - "The rate of movement of mass through a unit cross-sectional area per time in response to a concentration gradient or some advective force." - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2009

Related Definitions

Pore Water

USGS Information on Benthic Flux

• Lake Coeur d'Alene Remediation Assessment, Lake Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
• Mercury Transport in the Carson River Basin, Lahontan Reservoir, Nevada; Carson River, Nevada
• Nickel Cycling in the South San Francisco Bay, San Francisco Bay, California
• Benthic Flux of Metals and Nutrients Project
• Search the Toxic Substances Hydrology Program's Bibliography for "benthic flux"

Related Headlines

• New Method for Assessing Bed Sediment Contamination

References

Jahnke, R.A., 2009, Platforms--Benthic flux landers, in Steele, J.H., Thorpe, S.A., and Turekian, K.K., eds., Measurement Techniques, Platforms & Sensors--A derivative of the Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences (2 ed.): London, England, Elsevier Ltd., p. 652. 

King, J.N., Mehta, A.J., and Dean, R.G., 2009, Generalized analytical model for benthic water flux forced by surface gravity waves: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 114, no. C04004, p. 13, doi:10.1029/2008JC005116.

Parker, S.P., 1994, Dictionary of scientific and technical terms: McGraw-Hill, 2200 p.

Topping, B.R., Kuwabara, J.S., Parchaso, F., Hagar, S.W., Arnsberg, A.J., and Murphy, F., 2001, Benthic flux of dissolved nickel into the water column of South San Francisco Bay: U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report 01-89, 50 p.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2009, Glossary of technical terms: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, access date June 16, 2011.

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