The sources and transport of Sr and Nd isotopes in the Baltic Sea

Abstract

We have determined the concentration and isotopic composition of Sr and Nd in waters from the Baltic Sea. The Baltic Sea is an intracontinental, stratified, brackish water, estuarine-like system, and the rivers emptying into it drain a suite of terranes ranging from Proterozoic-Archean in the north to Phanerozoic in the south. The sampled brackish waters range in salinity from seawater (SW) at 35.289‰ to a minimum of 2.460‰ at the surface in the innermost part of the Gulf of Bothnia. The Sr concentrations show generally conservative behavior, indicating a simple two-component mixing. However, small deviations (3–70 ‰) from a perfect mixing line reveal that the imprints from rivers with different Sr concentrations are preserved in the blending. Strontium concentrations from a depth profile across the redoxcline in the Baltic proper indicate that vertical particle transport alters the Sr concentration in the water. Our estimated concentration of Sr in the average freshwater input to the Baltic is ∼ 0.03 ppm, which is only about 0.4% of the SW concentration. The Sr isotopic data range from ε^(Sr)(SW) = 0 in seawater to ε_(Sr)^(BW)(SW) = 7.8 in the least saline Baltic water (BW) sample in the Gulf of Bothnia. The isotopic composition of Sr versus 1/Sr in the Baltic Sea follows an almost perfect mixing line, which shows that seawater Sr is mixed with much more radiogenic components. Calculated end-member values of ε_(Sr)^*(SW) for each sample show that the riverine input into the Gulf of Bothnia has ε_(Sr)^*(SW) = 120–200 and 10–50 ε units in the Baltic proper. These values are in general agreement with direct measurements of river waters in each region. However, the calculated values in the Gulf of Bothnia are lower than the measured river water input in this region, which indicates the presence of less radiogenic Sr, presumably originating from the river waters draining the southern part of the basin which are partially transported northward and mixed with Sr from the Gulf of Bothnia rivers. The Nd concentration in the Baltic Sea is not conservative, varying between 5 and 45 ppt, with the highest concentrations in the bottom waters due to vertical particulate transport. A plot of ε_(Nd)(O) in Baltic water yields a good correlation with the calculated freshwater end member ε_(Sr)^*(SW). The data show that it is possible to unravel the different freshwater sources into the Baltic and to identify the zones of particulate removal of both non-conservative species such as the REE and of quasi-conservative species such as Sr. The use of isotopic tracers in this estuarine environment may provide a much better insight into mixing and element transport. It should also be possible to trace lateral movements of freshwater inputs.

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