Transfer of sediments and organic matter by a marine storm in the Cap de Creus Canyon (Gulf of Lion, NW Mediterranean Sea)

Abstract

In the Mediterranean basin, marine storms, often associated with flash floods of coastal rivers, are episodic and intense physical processes that are capable of transferring terrestrial organic matter to the continental shelf and up to the deep sea by strong bottom currents along submarine canyons. In order to study accurately a such event, an oceanographic cruise (CASCADE) was performed in the Gulf of Lion (NW Mediterranean Sea) in winter 2011. Two mooring lines equipped with a near-bottom sediment trap (25 m above bottom) were deployed at 290m and 365m water depth on the southern flank of the Cap de Creus Canyon. In order to characterize and to assess the origin of the particulate matter fluxes, the total mass flux, amino acids, opal, particulate organic carbon (POC) , as well as its stable isotopic ratio (d C) were determined