Reversal of the net dinitrogen gas flux in coastal marine sediments

R. W. Fulweiler (), S. W. Nixon, B. A. Buckley and S. L. Granger
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R. W. Fulweiler: Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, Rhode Island 02882-1197, USA
S. W. Nixon: Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, Rhode Island 02882-1197, USA
B. A. Buckley: Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, Rhode Island 02882-1197, USA
S. L. Granger: Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, Rhode Island 02882-1197, USA

Nature, 2007, vol. 448, issue 7150, 180-182

Abstract: From sink to source Most of the nitrogen reaching the costal ocean is removed by denitrification in marine sediments. Nitrogen fixation, however, is thought to be a negligible process in sub-tidal heterotrophic marine systems. Fulweiler et al. now show that marine sediments can switch from being a net sink to being a net source of nitrogen. The results of experiments mimicking the coastal marine environment, together with a historic dataset of mean annual chlorophyll production, suggest that a climateinduced decrease in primary production has led to a decrease in organic matter deposition to the sea floor and the observed reversal of the net sediment nitrogen flux. Some estuaries may therefore no longer be providing the useful nitrogen retention and removal services that they once did. This change could shift the effect of anthropogenic nitrogen loading beyond the immediate coastal zone and into the open ocean.

Date: 2007
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DOI: 10.1038/nature05963

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