Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Limnology and Oceanography

Publication Date

1-1-2003

First Page

346

Last Page

354

Issue Number

1 II

Volume Number

48

Abstract/ Summary

Measurements of inherent optical properties (IOP) were conducted over bottoms with different substrates by use of a sampling package mounted on and operated by a SCUBA diver. It was found that in areas of low ambient currents the distribution of IOP varies with bottom type in (1) its value relative to a nearby bottom of different type, (2) its vertical gradient, and (3) its variability. This implies that radiative transfer modeling in shallow environments may need to include, besides the bottom characteristics, the bottom effect on in-water IOP. In tidally flushed shallow banks, vertical and horizontal gradients over scales of O(1, 10 m), respectively, are as large as temporal gradients over scales of minutes and cannot be separated in our measurements. However, bottom-substrate-related processes over the banks result in gradients over large horizontal spatial scales and tidal timescales. The distribution of IOP is consistent with several biogeochemical processes that may be active at a given bottom substrate and suggest that optical measurements may provide a useful tool to infer and quantify bulk rates of biogeochemical processes.

Citation/Publisher Attribution

This article was published in Limnology and Oceanography, Vol. 48, No. 1, part 2, 346-354, 2003

Publisher Statement

© 2003 American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, Inc.

DOI

10.4319/lo.2003.48.1_part_2.0346

Version

publisher's version of the published document

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