Tampa Bay Study: Biogeochemical Cycles

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Contact: Peter Swarzenski
USGS Florida Integrated Science Center, 600 4th Street South, St. Petersburg, Florida 33701

Several Tampa Bay Study projects were designed to understand the impact of human activities on classic estuarine biogeochemical processes. The integrated science effort has revealed that the classic estuarine biogeochemical cycles operating within Tampa Bay are controlled not only by the underlying geologic framework that sets some form of environmental boundary constraints, but also by unique climate and temporal forcing.

We have also learned that episodic events, including tropical storms and winter cold fronts, can play a defining role in these estuarine processes and that the local flora and fauna may impart unique fingerprints on water and soil chemistry. The role of submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) within Tampa Bay, both in terms of a new component in constituent mass balance estimates or as a process implicitly responsible in the cycling of redox-sensitive trace elements, has also been developed.

View: USGS Submarine Groundwater Discharge Research Projects Website

Select a link below for a more in-depth discussion of each study and to access data sets.

Biogeochemical Studies

Tampa Bay as a model estuary for examining the impact of human activities on biogeochemical processes: An introduction (view article in Marine Chemistry)
Peter W. Swarzenski^a, Mark Baskaran^e, Carl S. Henderson^h, and Kim Yates^a

Spatial and temporal chemical variability in the Hillsborough River system (view article in Marine Chemistry)
Lori A. Pillsbury^b and Robert H. Byrne^b

Effects of ghost shrimp on zinc and cadmium in Tampa Bay sediment (view article in Marine Chemistry)
Paul L. Klerks^c, Darryl L. Felder^c, Karen Strasser^d, and Peter W. Swarzenski^a

Seasonal variation on the residence times and partitioning of short-lived radionuclides ²³⁴Th, ⁷Be and ²¹⁰Pb and depositional fluxes of ⁷Be and ²¹⁰Pb in Tampa Bay, Florida (view article in Marine Chemistry) (link to Radionuclides data page)
M. Baskaran^e, and P.W. Swarzenski^a

Uranium distribution in the coastal waters and pore waters of Tampa Bay, Florida. (view article in Marine Chemistry)
Peter W. Swarzenski^a, and Mark Baskaran^e

Chemical composition of mangrove-generated brines in Bishop Harbor, Florida: Interactions with submarine groundwater discharge (view article in Marine Chemistry)
Kelly T. McGowan^f, and Jonathan B. Martin^f

Ra and Rn isotopes as natural tracers of submarine groundwater discharge in Tampa Bay, Florida (view article in Marine Chemistry)
Peter W. Swarzenski^a, Chris Reich^a, Kevin D. Kroeger^a, and Mark Baskaran^e

Submarine groundwater discharge to Tampa Bay: Nutrient fluxes and biogeochemistry of the coastal aquifer (view article in Marine Chemistry)
Kevin D. Kroeger^a, Peter W. Swarzenski^a, Wm. Jason Greenwood^g, and Christopher Reich^a

Colored dissolved organic matter in Tampa Bay, Florida (view article in Marine Chemistry)
Zhiqiang Chen^b, Chuanmin Hu^b, Robyn N. Conmy^b, Frank Muller-Karger^b and Peter Swarzenski^a

Diurnal variation of oxygen and carbonate system parameters in Tampa Bay and Florida Bay (view article in Marine Chemistry)
Kimberly K. Yates^a, Chris Dufore^g, Nathan Smiley^a, Courtney Jackson^g, and Robert B. Halley^a

The Tampa Bay studies in biogeochemical cycles are presented in a special volume of Marine Chemistry - an international journal for studies of all chemical aspects of the marine environment.

Author Affiliation:

a - U.S. Geological Survey, Florida Integrated Science Center, 600 Fourth Street S., St. Petersburg, FL, 33701, United States

b - College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, 140 Seventh Avenue S., St. Petersburg, FL, 33701, United States

c - Department of Biology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA 70504, United States

d - Department of Biology, University of Tampa, Tampa, FL 33606, United States

e - Department of Geology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, United States

f - University of Florida, Department of Geological Sciences, P.O Box 112124, 241 Williamson Hall, Gainesville, FL 32611, United States

g - ETI Professionals, 600 Fourth Street South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701, United States

h - University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Stratford, NJ, 08084, United States