Early diagenesis processes and benthic fluxes in different depositional environments of the Northern and Central Adriatic Sea

The pelitic bottom sediments of the central and northern Adriatic Sea have been characterized following the early diagenesis process study and the dissolved benthic fluxes estimations. Diagenetic processes in the central and northern Adriatic are controlled by inputs of reactive organic matter of river and autochthonous origin, by the geochemical composition of the inorganic particulate, by sedimentation rates, by oxygenation of the water column and by the distance from intake sources. As one distances oneself from the mouth of the Po, early diagenetic processes change and the relative benthic fluxes diminish to the north as well as to the south, where they reach their minima in the mid-Adriatic trench.