Abstract
A complete understanding of dissolved organic matter (DOM), and more specifically colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM), is important not only for roles in the carbon cycle, but because CDOM has the ability to alter biological production of phytoplankton, through altering the availability of light in a particular region. CDOM is also important in the binding and availability of trace metals and nutrients and as a nutritional substrate within the microbial loop of aquatic systems. This project attempts to analyze spatial and temporal variations of CDOM in the heterotrophic shelf province known as the South Atlantic Bight (SAB), which lies off the Southeastern Atlantic Coast between Cape Canaveral and Cape Hatteras. Ancillary data used in this study included river hydrograph data for major rivers draining to the SAB, as well as precipitation and wind records before, during, and after tropical storms used in scenario analysis. Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) K490 imagery, as a proxy for CDOM, |was examined before and after select hurricane events that passed through the SAB. After hurricane events, the K490 values increased, signifying an increase in CDOM in the waters of the SAB. The values were highest near coastal regions and more specifically in areas close to black water river drainage suggesting that precipitation from hurricane events can contribute large amounts of CDOM to the SAB. Effects of storm wind fields on CDOM in surface layers of the SAB were variable, but observations in this study failed to support storm induced upwelling of non photo-bleached CDOM as a mechanism that increases surface CDOM values in this coastal province.