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Temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, suspended particulate matter and fluorescence in surface waters of the Charente estuary (North East Atlantic, France)
There are at least a dozen small hyper-turbid estuaries facing the Bay of Biscay, geographically situated between the two major estuaries of the Gironde and the Loire. MAGEST and SYVEL high-frequency multi-site monitoring revealed that the Loire, and to a lesser extent the Gironde, are subject to summer hypoxia. These observations raised the question of the potential occurrence of hypoxia in the small estuaries in between, motivating an investigation of dissolved oxygen in one of them, the Charente estuary. Oxygen and salinity sensors were placed at L'Houmée (2019), Tonnay-Charente (2018; 2019), Rochefort (2020; 2021; 2022), Martrou (2020) during summer, the most critical period for dissolved oxygen; a multiparameter probe was placed at Tonnay-Charente from April to November 2020. Longitudinal investigations along the estuary axis were also carried out during the summers of 2018 and 2019. All the measurements were acquired at 0.5 ± 0.2 meters below the surface. The dataset enabled us to identify the occurrence of summer hypoxia and an oxygen depletion zone in the Charente estuary. These results resulted in the implementation of high-frequency monitoring at Tonnay-Charente, operational since November 2020.
Disciplines
Chemical oceanography
Keywords
estuary, Charente, surface water, temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, suspended particle, fluorescence
Location
46N, 45.85S, -0.65E, -1.2W
Devices
Measurements were taken using HOBO U26 Dissolved Oxygen and U24 Conductivity/Salinity loggers, except at Tonnay-Charente in 2020 where a SAMBAT multiparameter probe (NKE Instrumentation, France) was deployed. The measured parameters are temperature (−-5 to +35°C; ± < 1%), salinity (range 0.1 -42; ± < 5%), turbidity (Turner Designs CYCLOPS-7; 0 - 3000 NTU; ± < 5%) converted in suspended particulate matter (SPM using a NTU-SPM rating curve established for Charente SPM, dissolved oxygen (0 - 20 mg L-1; ±0.1 mg L-1) and fluorescence (Turner Designs CYCLOPS-70 - 50 µg L-1; ± < 5%).
Data
File | Size | Format | Processing | Access | end of embargo | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Salinity, temperature and dissolved oxygen in surface water at L'Houmée | 523 Ko | CSV | Quality controlled data | 2025-07-15 | ||
Salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, suspended particulate matter and fluoresence in surface water at Tonnay-Charente | 3 Mo | CSV | Quality controlled data | 2025-07-15 | ||
Salinity, temperature and dissolved oxygen in surface water at Rochefort | 1 Mo | CSV | Quality controlled data | 2025-07-15 | ||
Salinity, temperature and dissolved oxygen in surface water at Martrou | 242 Ko | CSV | Quality controlled data | 2025-07-15 | ||
Longitudinal transects in the Charente estuary in summer 2018 and 2019 | 12 Ko | CSV | Quality controlled data | 2025-07-15 |