摘要：A new dataset based on 102 sediment cores was examined to estimate the amount of phosphorus (P) that will eventually be released to the water column from the Baltic coastal sediments along the Swedish coast between Öregrund and Oxelösund. Total P (Ptot) concentration in the surface sediments varied between 840 and 7100 μg g–1 dry weight (dw) with an average of 1650 μg g–1 dw. In deep sediments, the Ptot concentration was around 1000 μg g–1 with small variation. The difference between surface concentration and the stable, deeper, concentration represents P to be released, i.e. the mobile P. Pools of mobile P varied between 1.5 and 18.2 g m–2. Correlations between surface Ptot concentrations and amounts of mobile P were strong (r2 = 0.88). We estimate the amount of mobile P in the coastal sediments of the investigated region to be between 1000 and 4000 tonnes. Assuming a turnover time of the mobile P between three and ten years gives an average annual P release of 100–1300 tonnes yr–1.
