Extreme weather events modulate processing and export of dissolved organic carbon in the Neuse River Estuary, NC

Abstract As the interface between riverine and coastal systems, estuaries play a key role in receiving, transporting, and processing terrestrial organic carbon prior to export to downstream coastal systems. Estuaries can switch from terrestrial organic carbon reactors under low river flow to pipelines under high flow, but it remains unclear how estuarine terrestrial organic carbon processing responds to the full spectrum of discharge conditions, which are bracketed by these high and low discharge events. The amount of terrestrial dissolved organic carbon and colored dissolved organic matter imported, processed, and exported was assessed for riverine discharge events spanning from the 4th to 99th flow quantiles in the Neuse River Estuary, North Carolina, USA using spatially and temporally (July 2015–December 2016) resolved measurements. The extent of dissolved organic matter processing in the estuary under various flow conditions was estimated using a non-steady state box model to calculate estuary-wide terrestrial dissolved organic carbon and colored dissolved organic matter source & sink terms. Under mid-range riverine discharge conditions (4th to 89th flow quantiles), the Neuse River Estuary was a sink for terrestrial dissolved organic carbon, retaining and/or processing (i.e., flocculation; photochemical and microbial degradation) on average ∼29% of terrestrial dissolved organic carbon. Following floods due to extreme precipitation events (99th flow quantile), however, over 99% of the terrestrial dissolved organic carbon loaded from the riverine end-member was exported directly to the downstream coastal system. Following such extreme weather events, the estuary acts as a pipeline for direct export of terrestrial dissolved organic carbon, drastically altering the amount and quality of dissolved organic carbon loaded to downstream coastal systems. This has important implications under future climate scenarios, where extreme weather events are expected to increase.