Reversal of the net dinitrogen gas flux in coastal marine sediments
Fulweiler, R.W.; Nixon, S.W.; Buckley, B.A.; Granger, S.L. (2007). Reversal of the net dinitrogen gas flux in coastal marine sediments. Nature (Lond.) 448(7150): 180-182
In: Nature: International Weekly Journal of Science. Nature Publishing Group: London. ISSN 0028-0836; e-ISSN 1476-4687, more
|  |
| Keywords |
Cycles > Chemical cycles > Geochemical cycle > Biogeochemical cycle > Nutrient cycles > Nitrogen cycle
Sediments
Marine/Coastal |
| Authors | | Top |
- Fulweiler, R.W.
- Nixon, S.W.
- Buckley, B.A.
- Granger, S.L.
|
|
|
| Abstract |
The flux of nitrogen from land and atmosphere to estuaries and the coastal ocean has increased substantially in recent decades. The observed increase in nitrogen loading is caused by population growth, urbanization, expanding water and sewer infrastructure, fossil fuel combustion and synthetic fertilizer consumption. Most of the nitrogen is removed by denitrification in the sediments of estuaries and the continental shelf, leading to a reduction in both cultural eutrophication and nitrogen pollution of the open ocean. Nitrogen fixation, however, is thought to be a negligible process in sub-tidal heterotrophic marine system. Here we report sediment core data from Narragansett Bay, USA, which demonstrate that heterotrophic marine sediments can switch from being a net sink to being a net source of nitrogen. Mesocosm and core incubation experiments, together with a historic data set of mean annual chlorophyll production, support the idea that a climate-induced decrease in primary production has led to a decrease in organic matter deposition to the benthos and the observed reversal of the net sediment nitrogen flux. Our results suggest that some estuaries may no longer remove nitrogen from the water column. Instead, nitrogen could be exported to the continental shelf and the open ocean and could shift the effect of anthropogenic nitrogen loading beyond the immediate coastal zone. |
|
