Journal
BIOGEOCHEMISTRY
Volume 150, Issue 2, Pages 197-216Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10533-020-00693-4
Keywords
Tropical cyclones; Flooding; Organic carbon; Nutrient cycling; Phytoplankton; Estuarine; Coastal; North carolina
Funding
- NSF [DEB 1119704, DEB 1240851, OCE 0825466, OCE 0812913, OCE 1705972, OCE 1706009, CBET 0932632]
- North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (ModMon Program)
- Lower Neuse Basin Association
- North Carolina Sea Grant Program
- University of North Carolina Water Resources Research Institute
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Coastal North Carolina experienced 36 tropical cyclones (TCs), including three floods of historical significance in the past two decades (Hurricanes Floyd-1999, Matthew-2016 and Florence-2018). These events caused catastrophic flooding and major alterations of water quality, fisheries habitat and ecological conditions of the Albemarle-Pamlico Sound (APS), the second largest estuarine complex in the United States. Continuous rainfall records for coastal NC since 1898 reveal a period of unprecedented high precipitation storm events since the late-1990s. Six of seven of the wettest storm events in this > 120-year record occurred in the past two decades, identifying a period of elevated precipitation and flooding associated with recent TCs. We examined storm-related freshwater discharge, carbon (C) and nutrient, i.e., nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) loadings, and evaluated contributions to total annual inputs in the Neuse River Estuary (NRE), a major sub-estuary of the APS. These contributions were highly significant, accounting for > 50% of annual loads depending on antecedent conditions and storm-related flooding. Depending on the magnitude of freshwater discharge, the NRE either acted as a processor to partially assimilate and metabolize the loads or acted as a pipeline to transport the loads to the APS and coastal Atlantic Ocean. Under base-flow, terrestrial sources dominate riverine carbon. During storm events these carbon sources are enhanced through the inundation and release of carbon from wetlands. These findings show that event-scale discharge plays an important and, at times, predominant role in C, N and P loadings. We appear to have entered a new climatic regime characterized by more frequent extreme precipitation events, with major ramifications for hydrology, cycling of C, N and P, water quality and habitat conditions in estuarine and coastal waters.
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