Controls on water column chemistry of the southern Brazilian continental shelf

• Chemistry of southern Brazil shelf waters are described in relation to water masses.
• Upwelling and the northward penetration of Plata Plume Water effect nutrients.
• Plata Plume, Patos Lagoon outflow and SGD control Coastal water chemistry.
• Metal, nutrient–228Ra relations provide insights into water chemistry processes.

Chemistry of Southern Brazilian Continental Shelf (SBS) waters, between 28.5°S and 34°S, is evaluated in relation to the mixing of thermohaline defined water masses and concomitant water column processes. Data on inorganic nutrient and trace metal (Ba, Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, U, V and Zn) concentrations and radium isotopic activities from previous reports and recent analyses are presented and discussed with the aim of providing a state of knowledge on processes governing their sources, distribution, transport and fate on the SBS.Nutrients concentrations/distributions on the shelf are controlled mainly by Tropical Water/Subtropical Shelf Water, seasonally modified as a result of summer upwelling in the northern shelf region, and by Plata Plume Water, which is seasonally modified by discharges of submarine groundwater (SGD), the Patos Lagoon and by the greater northern penetration of the Rio de la Plata plume during winter. Radium-226 activity varies little across the shelf. Radium-228 activity, associated dominantly with SGD, decreases conservatively, with respect to salinity, across shelf transects, converging on a typical ocean endmember activity. The low salinity endmember activity, however, depends on the location of the shelf transect controlled by the variability of coastal SGD. Because SGD is so important to the coastal shelf region, 228Ra activity appears to provide a better tracer of water mass interactions than thermohaline characteristics. Using metal–228Ra relationships, sources, transport and fate of trace metals are better constrained enabling the following conclusion: The major source of dissolved Co, Mn and Fe to the shelf is SGD, along the coastal Holocene barrier system, followed by removal as coastal water mixes across the shelf. Cu and Si concentrations are explained as conservative mixtures of three endmembers: SGD, surface freshwater discharge and oceanic. Cd and Zn are largely explained similarly. Vanadium is enriched in coastal waters during the summer presumably due to seasonal remobilization from sediments but exhibits conservative mixing behavior across the shelf. Barium behavior is the most unexpected and is speculated to be the result of biochemical removal in highly productive coastal waters followed by release from decaying phytoplankton detritus as it is advected across the shelf.