期刊
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
卷 56, 期 18, 页码 13142-13151出版社
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.2c04652
关键词
desalination; polyphosphonates; nutrient fluxes; environmental impacts; microbial activity
资金
- Ministry of Science and Technology grant [001126]
- Ministry of Energy [221-17-020]
Desalination brine, as a waste product, has significant impacts on the marine ecosystem, affecting sedimentary processes and microbial activity. Experimental and observational results show that desalination brine leads to an increase in dissolved organic phosphorus and carbon in sediments, as well as stimulating microbial activity.
Desalination brine is a hypersaline byproduct that contains various operational chemicals such as polyphosphonate-based antiscalants. Brine often sinks and flows over the seabed by density currents; therefore, it may affect sediment-water nutrient fluxes and thus microbial activity. We quantified these parameters in brine plumes around two large-scale desalination facilities located in the P-limited Southeastern Mediterranean Sea. The benthic nutrient fluxes and microbial activity were determined using ex-situ core benthocosms, to which we added brine from the dispersion area in excess salinities of similar to 3% and 5% above natural levels. A higher influx of dissolved organic phosphorus (similar to 6-fold) and an efflux of dissolved organic carbon (similar to 1.7-fold) were measured in the brine-amended cores relative to the controls. This was accompanied by increased oxygen consumption (15%) and increased microbial activity (similar to 1.5-6.5-fold). Field observations support the results from experimental manipulations, yielding similar to 4.5-fold higher microbial activity rates around the brine plume compared to uninfluenced locations. Our results imply that desalination brine can alter sedimentary processes affecting benthic nutrients inventories. Moreover, we show that brine acts as a vector of anthropogenic P, stimulating microbial activity in the sediment-water interface.
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