Driving mechanisms for chemical transport and iron transformation in a subterranean estuary

Confirmation seminar presented by Wenran Cao 

Coastal water pollution is becoming a serious concern in Australia and worldwide due to the input of land-sourced contaminants into the oceans. One of the most prominent examples is the elevated release of bio-available iron through submarine groundwater discharge, resulting in the Lyngbya blooms in Moreton Bay since the 1990s. Most of the previous studies were limited by the understandings of how these irons rich in inland groundwater transport through the freshwater-saltwater mixing zone and transform into other forms of compounds before their discharge to the sea. This study will focus on shallow sandy beach aquifers dictated by the interplay between fresh groundwater input and tidal circulations, and aims to determine the coupling of hydrological and geochemical processes associated with iron mobilisation in the intertidal zone by integrating field investigations, laboratory experiments and numerical modelling. The outcomes will advance our fundamental understandings on the hydrogeochemical functionalities of subterranean estuaries at the land-ocean interface.

78-222 (General Purpose South) or Zoom https://uqz.zoom.us/j/82116466642