Anthropogenic activities have altered the pristine environment of many coastal ecosystems (Valiela et al., 1997). Urbanization of coastal regions has lead to increased nutrient loading from both point sources, such as sewage treatment outfalls, and nonpoint sources, such as artificial fertilizers used in agriculture and detergents made for domestic and industrial use (de Jonge et al., 2002). Nutrient loading to shallow coastal systems with low hydrodynamic energy is of particular concern because these systems are generally rich in organic matter and do not require much additional nutrient or organic matter input to become eutrophic (de Jonge et al., 2002).

Ricardo, Amanda2013-07-172013-07-172013-07-16http://hdl.handle.net/10125/29597In aquatic systems, benthic microbial respiration can have a profound effect on nutrient cycling and overall ecosystem health. Respiration results in the release of bioavailable nutrients as well as series of redox species which can be used as a proxy to identify reduced benthic conditions. He’eia Fishpond, located in Kane’ohe, Hawai’i, is a low energy, shallow coastal system influenced by an influx of both riverine freshwater and marine seawater, as well as by mangrove forests located along its terrestrial periphery. Voltammetric solid-state microelectrodes were used to simultaneously identify and measure changes in redox speciation over time in dark incubations of fine grained to coarse grained sediment core samples taken from the pond. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the synergy between sediment heterogeneity (i.e., varying grain size, permeability, mineralogy and organic matter content) and sediment redox chemistry.45 pagesAll UHM Honors Projects are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission from the copyright owner.Anthropogenic activities have altered the pristine environment of many coastal ecosystems (Valiela et al., 1997). Urbanization of coastal regions has lead to increased nutrient loading from both point sources, such as sewage treatment outfalls, and nonpoint sources, such as artificial fertilizers used in agriculture and detergents made for domestic and industrial use (de Jonge et al., 2002). Nutrient loading to shallow coastal systems with low hydrodynamic energy is of particular concern because these systems are generally rich in organic matter and do not require much additional nutrient or organic matter input to become eutrophic (de Jonge et al., 2002).Term Project