Accumulation rates of major elements of hemipelagic sediments in the Gulf of Cádiz (Spain): a decadal perspective of sedimentary dynamics

In June 2006, surveys were carried out in the Gulf of Cádiz within the multidisciplinary project ‘Littoral areas of green-house gases emission: influence of coastal input and benthic production’. Two areas have been selected in the Gulf of Cádiz, where there are important emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere. These emissions can be related to continental inputs of inorganic carbon (Guadalquivir estuary) or to anthropogenic inputs of organic carbon (bay of Cádiz). The surveys were also designed to study the geochemistry in bottom sediments as influenced by the discharges of the rivers Guadiana, Tinto, Odiel and Guadalquivir, which drain parts of the southern Iberian Peninsula [1]. In this work, accumulation rate and chemical composition of sediment in the outer Bay of Cadiz have been assessed by means of 210Pb and 137Cs activity profiles and X-ray fluorescence analysis [2,3], respectively.