The benthic boundary layer is the zone of water and sediment immediately adjacent to the bottom of a sea, lake, or river. This zone is of considerable interest to biologists, geochemists, sedimentologists, and engineers because of very strong gradients of energy, dissolved and solid chemical components, suspended matter, and the number of organisms that live there. It is, for example, the sink for anthropogenic substances and the home of microscopic plant life that provides the nutrients that determine fish populations--and ultimately the size of the fisheries.
This book of original chapters edited by Professors Boudreau and Jorgensen, both leading researchers in the field, will meet the need for an up-to-date, definitive text/reference on measurements, techniques, and models for transport and biochemical processes in the benthic boundary layer. Each chapter provides a comprehensive review of a selected field, with illustrated examples from the authors' own work. The book will appeal to professionals and researchers in marine biology, marine chemistry, marine engineering, and sedimentology.
Contributors 1: Bernard P. Boudreau and Bo Barker Jørgensen: Introduction 2: W. Brian Dade, Andrew J. Hogg, and Bernard P. Boudreau: Physics of Flow above the Sediment-Water Interface 3: Arzhang Khalili, Markus Huetell, and Wolfgang Merzkirch: Fine-Scale Flow Measurements in the Benthic Boundary Layer 4: Paul S. Hill and I. N. McCave: Suspended Particle Transport in Benthic Boundary Layers 5: Bernard P. Boudreau: Solute Transport above the Sediment-Water Interface 6: David M. Paterson: The Fine Structure and Properties of the Sediment Surface 7: Markus Huettel and Ian T. Webster: Porewater Flow in Permeable Sediments 8: Michael Kühl and Neil Peter Revsbech: Biogeochemical Microsensors for Boundary Layer Studies 9: Bo Barker Jørgensen and Bernard P. Boudreau: Diagenesis and Sediment-Water Exchange 10: Clare E. Reimers, Richard A. Jahnke, and Lairenz Thomsen: In Situ Sampling in the Benthic Boundary Layer 11: Robert C. Aller: Transport and Reactions in the Bioirrigated Zone 12: Richard A. Jahnke: Constraining Organic Matter Cycling with Benthic Fluxes 13: Peter A. Jumars, James E. Eckman, and Evamaria Koch: Macroscopic Animals and Plants in Benthic Flows 14: Bo Barker Jørgensen: Life in the Diffusive Boundary Layer 15: Interfacial Microbial Mats and Biofilms List of Common Symbols Index
