Nitrogen Deposition Impact on Waters

Researchers from Penn State's Department of Meteorology Embarked on a Three-week, NSF-funded Field Project to Catch and Analyze Rainwater at Sea

"The atmospheric deposition of nitrogen to coastal waters is one of many ways in which humans influence the ocean," says Raymond Najjar, professor of meteorology, and a principal investigator on the project. "This study is important because it is the first to directly measure the impact of nitrogen deposition on the productivity of coastal waters."

Nitrogen is a naturally-occurring element essential for the growth of all living organisms; however, in aquatic systems, excess nitrogen can stimulate an explosive growth of plants and algae, which deplete oxygen levels when they die and decompose.

As a byproduct of combustion, nitric oxide (NO) from cars, trucks, biomass burning and energy production is emitted to the atmosphere. Additionally, a substantial amount of nitrogen enters the atmosphere as ammonia from agricultural activity. Given a general west-to-east flow of meteorological systems across the United States, the coastal marine systems of the eastern seaboard receive significant atmospheric nitrogen loadings, yet the biological impact of these loadings remains poorly understood.

The nitrogen that falls in rainwater can be a nutrient for some biological processes. It can be taken up by phytoplankton and other biomass and used for the production of amino acids and proteins. Since nitrogen is often a limiting nutrient in the open waters of oceans, the deposition from the atmosphere can be a stimulant to the system.

For "Deposition of Atmospheric Nitrogen to Coastal Ecosystems," or DANCE, the NSF-funded project, the researchers collected air and water samples in the coastal waters located between the Delaware Bay and the coastal Carolinas to investigate whether atmospheric nitrogen loadings from precipitation following summer storms stimulate primary productivity and accumulation of algal biomass in coastal waters.

The Penn State team, in collaboration with researchers from Old Dominion University and the College of William & Mary's Virginia Institute of Marine Science, collected their measurements on board the R/V Hugh R. Sharp, operated by the University of Delaware out of Lewes, DE.

Source: AZOCleanTech

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