Our knowledge of how energy and matter is cycled through Earth’s reservoirs is rapidly evolving, but is limited by a lack of integrative research crossing disciplinary boundaries. For example, the active role of inland waters in processing organic matter (OM) has been recently highlighted. However, the impact of fluvial and subterranean fluxes on marine biogeochemical cycling and the fate of terrestrially-derived OM in the ocean remains unclear. Likewise, there is little consensus on the origin(s) and processes maintaining the vast pool of dissolved OM that cycles on millennial time scales in the deep ocean.
Combining our understanding of biogeochemical pathways across riverine, estuarine, and marine gradients is a critical step in constraining global energy and carbon budgets under past, present, and future climate scenarios. The interface between freshwater and marine ecosystems provides a unique setting to examine the evolution of biogeochemical components derived from the landscape, inland waters, and marine waters across a physiochemical gradient. Likewise, human development is typically centered around watersheds and the coastline, amplifying the potential influence of anthropogenic impacts on natural ecosystem processes.
The objective of this Research Topic in Marine Science is to integrate our understanding of how biogeochemical components are transported and transformed along aquatic continuums and the implications on regional and global scale carbon budgets. Our goal is to highlight studies from a wide range of latitudinal settings and spatiotemporal magnitudes in both pristine and human-influenced environments. The submission of manuscripts examining the mechanisms driving sources, sinks, and the fate of OM pools across riverine, estuarine/subterranean, and marine gradients is particularly encouraged.
Our knowledge of how energy and matter is cycled through Earth’s reservoirs is rapidly evolving, but is limited by a lack of integrative research crossing disciplinary boundaries. For example, the active role of inland waters in processing organic matter (OM) has been recently highlighted. However, the impact of fluvial and subterranean fluxes on marine biogeochemical cycling and the fate of terrestrially-derived OM in the ocean remains unclear. Likewise, there is little consensus on the origin(s) and processes maintaining the vast pool of dissolved OM that cycles on millennial time scales in the deep ocean.
Combining our understanding of biogeochemical pathways across riverine, estuarine, and marine gradients is a critical step in constraining global energy and carbon budgets under past, present, and future climate scenarios. The interface between freshwater and marine ecosystems provides a unique setting to examine the evolution of biogeochemical components derived from the landscape, inland waters, and marine waters across a physiochemical gradient. Likewise, human development is typically centered around watersheds and the coastline, amplifying the potential influence of anthropogenic impacts on natural ecosystem processes.
The objective of this Research Topic in Marine Science is to integrate our understanding of how biogeochemical components are transported and transformed along aquatic continuums and the implications on regional and global scale carbon budgets. Our goal is to highlight studies from a wide range of latitudinal settings and spatiotemporal magnitudes in both pristine and human-influenced environments. The submission of manuscripts examining the mechanisms driving sources, sinks, and the fate of OM pools across riverine, estuarine/subterranean, and marine gradients is particularly encouraged.
