Organic matter remineralization and porewater exchange rates in permeable South Atlantic Bight continental shelf sediments

South Atlantic Bight (SAB) continental shelf sediments are characterized by high permeabilities, substantial benthic microalgal photosynthesis, and rapid tidally driven bottom currents. Primary productivity by benthic microalgae rivals water column production for much of the shelf area for most of the year and porewater exchange proceeds at rates of 2-100 (mean 34) times that of molecular diffusion. In this environment, traditional techniques of porewater diffusion calculations and benthic flux chamber incubations do not yield accurate estimates of integrated sedimentary reaction and metabolic rates. Between 1995 and 2001, porewater nutrient distributions have been determined on sediment cores recovered on 24 separate expeditions to the central shelf. Measurements demonstrate that standing stocks of porewater nutrients vary significantly seasonally. Replicate whole core incubations from 1999-2001 conducted over a seasonal cycle reveal that remineralization rates vary seasonally by more than a factor of 18, in response to changes in bottom temperature and possibly organic carbon input. These results suggest that changes in remineralization rate and not changes in porewater advective transport rate are the primary factor accounting for the observed seasonal differences in porewater nutrient inventories. Integrating the observed remineralization rates over the shelf area and throughout an annual cycle implies that approximately 3.8 Tg C, equivalent to 17% of the integrated mid-shelf water column production, is recycled annually in the sediments below the surface benthic microalgal layer of the South Atlantic Bight. Including respiration associated with the sediment surface photosynthetic community implies that the sediments account for approximately half of the total metabolic carbon turnover in this shelf system.