[1] Regional high-resolution (0.1°C, 0.5 m) low-altitude thermal infrared imagery (TIR) reveals the exact input locations and fine-scale mixing structure of massive, cool groundwaters that discharge into the coastal zone as both diffuse flows and as >30 large point-sourced nutrient-rich plumes along the dry western half of the large volcanic island of Hawaii. These inputs are the sole source of new nutrient delivery to coastal waters in this oligotrophic setting. Water column profiling and nutrient sampling show that the plumes are cold, buoyant, nutrient-rich brackish mixtures of groundwater and seawater. By way of example, we illustrate in detail one of the larger plumes, which discharges ca. 12,000 m 3 d À1 (ca. 8,600 m 3 d À1 freshwater), rates comparable in volume to high-flux groundwater outputs in better-known tropical karst terrains. We further show how nutrient mixing trends may be integrated into TIR sea surface temperatures to produce surface water nutrient maps of regional extent.

Generally unseen and infrequently measured, submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) can transport potentially large loads of nutrients and other land-based contaminants to coastal ecosystems. To examine this linkage we employed algal bioassays, benthic community analysis, and geochemical methods to examine water quality and community parameters of nearshore reefs adjacent to a variety of potential, land-based nutrient sources on Maui. Three common reef algae, Acanthophora spicifera, Hypnea musciformis, and Ulva spp. were collected and/or deployed at six locations with SGD. Algal tissue nitrogen (N) parameters (δ15N, N %, and C:N) were compared with nutrient and δ15N-nitrate values of coastal groundwater and nearshore surface water at all locations. Benthic community composition was estimated for ten 10-m transects per location. Reefs adjacent to sugarcane farms had the greatest abundance of macroalgae, low species diversity, and the highest concentrations of N in algal tissues, coastal groundwater, and marine surface waters compared to locations with low anthropogenic impact. Based on δ15N values of algal tissues, we estimate ca. 0.31 km2 of Kahului Bay is impacted by effluent injected underground at the Kahului Wastewater Reclamation Facility (WRF); this region is barren of corals and almost entirely dominated by colonial zoanthids. Significant correlations among parameters of algal tissue N with adjacent surface and coastal groundwater N indicate that these bioassays provided a useful measure of nutrient source and loading. A conceptual model that uses Ulva spp. tissue δ15N and N % to identify potential N source(s) and relative N loading is proposed for Hawaiʻi. These results indicate that SGD can be a significant transport pathway for land-based nutrients with important biogeochemical and ecological implications in tropical, oceanic islands.

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Phosphorus is a critical element in the biosphere, limiting biological productivity and thus modulating the global carbon cycle and climate. Fluxes of the global phosphorus cycle remain poorly constrained. The prehuman reactive phosphorus flux to the ocean is estimated to range from 0.7-4.8 x 10 12 g/yr. Uncertainty in the reactive phosphorus flux hinges primarily on the uncertain fate of phosphate adsorbed to iron oxyhydroxide particles which are estimated to constitute 50% or more of the chemically weathered-phosphorus river flux. Most reactive phosphorus is initially removed from seawater by burial of organic matter and by scavenging onto iron-manganese oxide particles derived from mid-ocean ridge (MOR) hydrothermal activity. Calculation of the oceanic phosphorus burial flux is complicated by early diagenetic redistribution of both oceanic and terrestrial phosphorus. Increased phosphorus input during periods of warm, humid climate is offset to some degree by increased burial rate as productivity shifts to expanded shallow-water estuary and shelf areas where phosphorus is rapidly decoupled from organic matter to form phosphorite. Phosphorus scavenging is greater if high sea levels are associated with increased MOR hydrothermal activity such as during the Late Cretaceous. Less phosphorus is derived from weathering during cool, dry climatic periods but a more direct transportation of phosphorus to the deep ocean, and a shift of productive upwelling regions to deeper water areas allows more phosphorus to be recycled in the water column. Lowered sea level results in less effective trapping of phosphorus in constricted estuary and shelf areas and in an increase in the phosphorus flux to the deep ocean from sediment resuspension. A decrease in MOR spreading rates and the resulting decrease in phosphorus scavenging by iron-manganese oxide particles would result in more phosphorus for the biosphere. Orogeny and glaciation may accelerate chemical weathering of phosphorus from the continents when the increased particle flux is exposed to warm and humid climate. Large, reworked phosphorite deposits may proxy for short-term organic carbon burial and correspond to periods of increased reactive phosphorus input that cannot be accommodated by longterm organic matter and iron-oxide particulate burial.

Aerial thermal infrared imaging has revealed that submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) along the western coast of the Big Island of Hawaii is often focused as point-source discharges that create buoyant groundwater plumes that mix into the coastal ocean. We quantified the SGD fluxes associated with several plumes using natural geochemical tracers. Offshore transects of 222 Rn and 224 Ra show elevated activities and corresponding low salinities in the nearshore waters within the plumes, indicating that these naturally occurring radionuclides can be useful tracers of groundwater inputs in this area. Using a series of simultaneous mass balance equations for water, salt, and radon, we determined the groundwater fluxes of six plumes near Kona, Hawaii. The average SGD fluxes ranged from 1100 m 3 d 21 to 12,000 m 3 d 21 of total (fresh + saline) SGD. The fresh (meteoric) groundwater equivalents for the same flows, modeled by adjusting the groundwater end member to reflect freshwater rather than brackish groundwater composition, ranged from 630 m 3 d 21 to 8600 m 3 d 21 . These fluxes are in general agreement with earlier results obtained by hydrological water budgets and physical oceanographic analyses of fresh SGD rates in this region.