Journal ArticleDOI
Nutrient Limitation of Net Primary Production in Marine Ecosystems
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TLDR
There is a feeling among many limnologists and environmental engineers who study lakes that marine ecosystems also probably are phosphorus limited, and environmental management agencies often assume that phosphorus limitation in marine ecosystems is the rule.Abstract:
The question of nutrient limitation of primary production in estuaries and other marine ecosystems has engendered a great deal of debate. Although nitrogen is often named as the primary limiting nutrient in seawater (3, 17-19, 50, 52, 55, 61, 76, 80), this is by no means universally accepted. Many workers have argued that phosphorus is limiting (58, 71), that both nitrogen and phosphorus can simultaneously be limiting (9), or that primary production can switch seasonally from being nitrogen-limited to phosphorus-limited (6, 46). Others argue that nutrients are not limiting at all in many marine ecosystems, including highly oligotrophic waters (15). To some extent these disagreements result from poor communication due to different definitions of nutrient limitation. Considerable argument also occurs over the various methods and approaches used to estimate nutrient limitation. Limnologists in particular have tended to be critical of the methods often used to study nutrient limitation in marine ecosystems (23). Nutrient limitation in lakes has historically received more study than that in estuaries, and most mesotrophic and eutrophic north-temperate lakes are phosphorus limited (8, 62, 63, 66, 81). Thus, there is a feeling among many limnologists and environmental engineers who study lakes that marine ecosystems also probably are phosphorus limited. Lacking strong mechanistic arguments to explain why nutrient limitation might be different in estuaries than in lakes, environmental management agencies often assume that phosphorus limitation in marine ecosystems is the rule.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Human alteration of the global nitrogen cycle: sources and consequences
Peter M. Vitousek,John D. Aber,Robert W. Howarth,Gene E. Likens,Pamela A. Matson,David W. Schindler,William H. Schlesinger,David Tilman +7 more
TL;DR: In this article, a review of available scientific evidence shows that human alterations of the nitrogen cycle have approximately doubled the rate of nitrogen input into the terrestrial nitrogen cycle, with these rates still increasing; increased concentrations of the potent greenhouse gas N 2O globally, and increased concentration of other oxides of nitrogen that drive the formation of photochemical smog over large regions of Earth.
Journal ArticleDOI
Nonpoint pollution of surface waters with phosphorus and nitrogen
Stephen R. Carpenter,Nina F. Caraco,David L. Correll,Robert W. Howarth,Andrew N. Sharpley,Val H. Smith +5 more
TL;DR: In this article, a review of the available scientific information, they are confident that nonpoint pollution of surface waters with P and N could be reduced by reducing surplus nutrient flows in agricultural systems and processes, reducing agricultural and urban runoff by diverse methods, and reducing N emissions from fossil fuel burning, but rates of recovery are highly variable among water bodies.
Journal ArticleDOI
Global analysis of nitrogen and phosphorus limitation of primary producers in freshwater, marine and terrestrial ecosystems.
James J. Elser,Matthew E. S. Bracken,Elsa E. Cleland,Daniel S. Gruner,W. Stanley Harpole,Helmut Hillebrand,Jacqueline T. Ngai,Eric W. Seabloom,Jonathan B. Shurin,Jennifer E. Smith +9 more
TL;DR: A large-scale meta-analysis of experimental enrichments shows that P limitation is equally strong across these major habitats and that N and P limitation are equivalent within both terrestrial and freshwater systems.
Journal ArticleDOI
Nitrogen limitation on land and in the sea: How can it occur?
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine both how the biogeochemistry of the nitrogen cycle could cause limitation to develop, and how nitrogen limitation could persist as a consequence of processes that prevent or reduce nitrogen fixation.
Journal ArticleDOI
Eutrophication: impacts of excess nutrient inputs on freshwater, marine, and terrestrial ecosystems
TL;DR: Two brief case studies demonstrate that nutrient loading restriction is the essential cornerstone of aquatic eutrophication control, and results of a preliminary statistical analysis are presented consistent with the hypothesis that anthropogenic emissions of oxidized nitrogen could be influencing atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide via nitrogen stimulation of global primary production.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Nitrogen fixation in freshwater, estuarine, and marine ecosystems. 2. Biogeochemical controls1
TL;DR: The tendency toward less nitrogen fixation by plankton in estuaries and coastal marine ecosystems than in lakes subject to similar loadings of nitrogen and phosphorus may be due to a lower availability in oxic seawater of one or more trace elements required for nitrogen fixation, such as molybdenum and iron.
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A study of plankton dynamics and nutrient cycling in the central gyre of the north pacific ocean1
TL;DR: Venrick et al. as mentioned in this paper studied the dynamics of phytoplankton growth in relation to nutrient concentrations in the subtropical central gyre of the North Pacific in November 1971.
Journal ArticleDOI
Nutrients and the productivity of estuarine and coastal marine ecosystems
TL;DR: The relationship between nutrient loading and nutrient cycling and the extent to which their interactions may set the levels of primary and secondary production in coastal systems has been investigated in this article, and it has been shown that some direct relationship exists between the input of nutrients and the productivity of higher trophic levels has been a principle of marine ecology since the turn of the century.
Journal ArticleDOI
Eutrophication—The future marine coastal nuisance?
TL;DR: Increased inputs of nutrients to marine coastal areas over the last decades have created a basis for eutrophication of the waters surrounding Sweden, first noted in the Baltic, but now obvious also in Swedish and Danish coastal areas in the Kattegat and the Belt Sea.