Our understanding of the small-scale processes that drive global biogeochemical cycles and the Earth’s climate is dependent on accurate estimations of interfacial diffusive fluxes to and from biologically-active substrates in aquatic environments. In this study, we present a novel model approach for accurate calculations of diffusive fluxes of dissolved gases, nutrients, and solutes from concentration profiles measured across the substrate-water interfaces using microsensors. The model offers a robust computational scheme for automatized determination of the interface position and enables precise calculations of the interfacial diffusive fluxes simultaneously. In contrast to other methods, the new approach is not restricted to any particular substrate geometry, does not require a priori determination of the interface position for the flux calculation, and, thus, reduces the uncertainties in calculated fluxes arising from partly subjective identification of the interface position. In addition, it is robust when applied to measured profiles containing scattered data points and insensitive to reasonable decreases of the spatial resolution of the data points. The latter feature allows for significantly reducing measurement time which is a crucial factor for in-situ experiments.

中文翻译：

---

一种新的基于测量的模型，用于计算海洋聚集体、沉积物和生物膜的基质-水界面的扩散通量

我们对驱动全球生物地球化学循环和地球气候的小规模过程的理解取决于对进出水生环境中生物活性基质的界面扩散通量的准确估计。在这项研究中，我们提出了一种新的模型方法，用于根据使用微传感器跨底物-水界面测量的浓度分布准确计算溶解气体、营养物质和溶质的扩散通量。该模型为自动确定界面位置提供了强大的计算方案，并能够同时精确计算界面扩散通量。与其他方法相比，新方法不限于任何特定的基板几何形状，不需要先验确定用于通量计算的界面位置，因此，减少了由界面位置的部分主观识别引起的计算通量的不确定性。此外，当应用于包含分散数据点的测量剖面时，它是稳健的，并且对数据点空间分辨率的合理降低不敏感。后一个功能可以显着减少测量时间，这是原位实验的关键因素。