Seminar – “The complexity in sediment dynamics in the marginal sea: the diversity and role”

Abstract:

In marginal seas there is a large diversity in the physical (size and bulk density) and geochemical characteristics of suspended sediments due to their sources (terrestrial or marine; lithogenic or biogenic); the processes that entrain and transport them (wave resuspension, river plume, ocean currents); and the interactions between the sediments and the surrounding environment (water, substrate, fauna).

Because of the particle affinity of many biogeochemical substances in coastal and marine environments, suspended particles often become vehicles for carrying biogeochemical signals along the source to sink pathway in a river-sea dispersal system. When these sediments bearing the environmental attributes are deposited and buried on the sea floor, they become environmental proxies.

Often, there is a strong coupling between the physical processes that move the sediments and the biogeochemical signatures that these sediments carry on multiple time and space scales. The suspended sediments are involved in the biological, geochemical processes in estuarine and coastal environments, which affect the quality and ecology of these habitats.Ai?? Additionally, the deposition and erosion of the sediments cause changes in the geomorphology of the environment, thereby, affecting the stability of the habitat.

Sediments (suspended and substrate) play important roles in many changing environments in the marginal sea, their effects on the physical, geological, biological, and chemical nature of these environments cannot be ignored.Ai?? Therefore a multi-disciplinary approach is needed to study the sediment dynamics in the marginal sea.