Carbon-controlled nitrogen cycling in a marine 'macrocosm'- an ecosystem-scale model for managing cultural eutrophication

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Both data which we present for Tomales Bay (California, USA) and general geochemical reasoning provide evidence to suggest that nearshore marine environments tend to be net heterotrophic by a small margin, and that these systems oxidize on the order of 1% of their primary production by denitrification. The rate of denitrification can be interpreted to be a simple stoichiometric function of the margin of heterotrophy. Carbon oxidation by denitrification is trivial to the total C budget, but fixed N loss is sufficient to cause apparent N-limitation of primary production in these systems. We suggest that heterotrophic C metabolism causes the apparent N limitation of primary production, and that control of the N cycle by C has important implications for environmental management.