Fjords as Aquatic Critical Zones (ACZs)

• Published in: Earth-Science Reviews
• Main Authors: Bianchi, Thomas, Arndt, Sandra, Austin, William, Benn, Doug I, Bertrand, Sebastien, Cui, Xingqian, Faust, Johan, Koziorowska-Makuch, Katarzyna, Moy, Christopher, Savage, Candida, Smeaton, Craig, Smith, Richard, Syvitski, Jaia
• Other Authors: University of St Andrews. School of Geography & Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews. Bell-Edwards Geographic Data Institute, University of St Andrews. Coastal Resources Management Group, University of St Andrews. Marine Alliance for Science & Technology Scotland, University of St Andrews. Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St Andrews. St Andrews Sustainability Institute
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Fjord; Sediment; Geomorphology; Seabed; Glaciers; Marine; Biogeochemistry; Coastal; Carbon; Aquatic; Climate; GE Environmental Sciences; Oceanography; Environmental Science (miscellaneous); Earth-Surface Processes; NDAS; SDG 13 - Climate Action; SDG 14 - Life Below Water; SDG 15 - Life on Land; GE; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Austin
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/19609; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2020.103145

The Jon and Beverly Thompson Endowed Chair in Geological Sciences at the University of Florida supported T. Bianchi's time and effort in writing this manuscript. Katarzyna Koziorowska-Makuch's participation in this study was supported by the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP). X. Cui would like to acknowledge Simons Foundation collaboration on the origins of life at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. W. Austin and C. Smeaton are funded by Marine Scotland through the Scottish Blue Carbon Forum.S. Arndt acknowledges funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no.643052 (C-CASCADES project). J. Faust would like to acknowledge the ChAOS project (NE/P006493/1), part of the Changing Arctic Ocean programme and funded by the UKRI Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). In recent decades, the land-ocean aquatic continuum, commonly defined as the interface, or transition zone, between terrestrial ecosystems and the open ocean, has undergone dramatic changes. On-going work has stressed the importance of treating Aquatic Critical Zones (ACZs) as a sensitive system needing intensive investigation. Here, we discuss fjords as an ACZ in the context of sedimentological, geochemical, and climatic impacts. These diverse physical features of fjords are key in controlling the sources, transport, and burial of organic matter in the modern era and over the Holocene. High sediment accumulation rates in fjord sediments allow for high-resolution records of past climate and environmental change where multiple proxies can be applied to fjord sediments that focus on either marine or terrestrial-derived components. Humans through land-use change and climatic stressors are having an impact on the larger carbon stores in fjords. Sediment delivery whether from accelerating erosion (e.g. mining, deforestation, road building, agriculture) or from sequestration of fluvial sediment behind dams has been seriously altered in the Anthropocene. Climate ...