Benthic dissolved oxygen and nutrient fluxes from sediment core incubations conducted aboard the R/V Oceanus and R/V Robert G. Sproul during nine cruises from 2018-2022 from the Oregon and Washington shelf

Abstract

Continental shelf sediments are sinks for dissolved oxygen and sources of many major and minor nutrients required for oceanic surface primary production, resulting in a strong coupling between benthic and pelagic biogeochemical cycling. However, the influence and spatiotemporal variability of benthic remineralization on bottom-water chemistry and the supply of nutrients to surface waters has received minimal study on the Oregon-Washington (OR-WA) shelf. To expand knowledge of these areas, benthic flux measurements were made approximately quarter-annually at inner-shelf and mid-shelf sites on the Newport Hydrographic (NH) Line at 44.6˚N between December 2017 and July 2019, and again between 44.5˚N and 46.5˚N along the mid-shelf during July and September of 2022. The benthic fluxes were determined using a novel set-up for ex situ core incubations. The dataset described here details all benthic fluxes measured during sediment incubation experiments, conducted during the cruises from February 2018 to July 2019, at the sites on the NH Line, and during July and September of 2022. The paired bottom water dataset is located in a separate BCO-DMO dataset (dataset ID 793115). Additionally, during the 2022 cruises, community composition data were collected using box corers. These data are also located in a separate BCO-DMO dataset (dataset ID 880760).

For a complete list of measurements, refer to the full dataset description in the supplemental file 'Dataset_description.pdf'. The most current version of this dataset is available at: https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/940414