Publication Date:
2022-05-25
Description:
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2009. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 101 (2010): 553-563, doi:10.1016/j.jenvrad.2009.12.004.
Description:
We constructed a survey system of radon/methane/nitrate/salinity to find sites of
submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) and groundwater nitrate input. We deployed
the system in Waquoit Bay and Boston Harbor, MA where we derived SGD rates using a
mass balance of radon with methane serving as a fine resolution qualitative indicator of
groundwater. In Waquoit Bay we identified several locations of enhanced groundwater
discharge, out of which two (Childs and Quashnet Rivers) were studied in more detail.
The Childs River was characterized by high nitrate input via groundwater discharge,
while the Quashnet River SGD was notable but not a significant source of nitrate. Our
radon survey of Boston Harbor revealed several sites with significant SGD, out of these
Inner Harbor and parts of Dorchester Bay and Quincy Bay had groundwater fluxes
accompanied by significant water column nitrogen concentrations. The survey system
has proven effective in revealing areas of SGD and non-point source pollution.
Description:
R. Camilli acknowledges the National Ocean Partnership
Program (NOPP) for supporting the development of the TETHYS mass spectrometer
through research grant #OCE-0537173. H. Dulaiova, M. A. Charette and R. Camilli
acknowledge funding support from the WHOI Coastal Institute and MIT Sea Grant
College Program under NOAA grant number NA06OAR4170019, project number
5710002173. H. Dulaiova was funded by the WHOI Academic Program’s postdoctoral
scholarship.
Keywords:
Non-point source pollution
;
Submarine groundwater discharge
;
Methane
;
Radon
;
Nitrate
;
Waquoit Bay
;
Boston Harbor
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Preprint
Format:
application/pdf
Permalink
