Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

SS31 Integrated Approaches to Drainage Basin Nutrient Inputs and Inland/Coastal Eutrophication (Science and Society Connections)

Date: Thursday, February 15, 2001, Time: 11:30:00 AM

Location: Cimarron

Merrill, J, Z, UMCES Horn Point Laboratory, Cambridge, USA, merrill@mdsg.umd.edu

Cornwell, J, C, UMCES Horn Point Laboratory, Cambridge, USA, cornwell@hpl.umces.edu

Boynton, W, R, UMCES Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, Solomons, USA, boynton@cbl.umces.edu

AN EXAMINATION OF UPPER ESTUARINE MARSHES IN AN ECOSYSTEM NUTRIENT BUDGET

New data representing coastal marshes were included in an updated version of the ecosystem nutrient budget developed for the Patuxent River, MD ecosystem. Earlier work accounting for measured and estimate N & P loads and losses suggested an annual export of both N & P from the Patuxent River subestuary to the Chesapeake Bay. Sediment geochronology was used in bordering marsh systems to calculate N & P burial over long time periods and the data were extrapolated to the entire marsh acreage using vegetation coverage. The marshes appear to bury approximately 418,000 kg N yr-1 and 71,000 kg P y-1 within the sediment matrix. The inclusion of these estimates in the ecosystem nutrient framework suggests the Patuxent River may contribute little or no net N & P to the mainstem of the Chesapeake Bay, and may import nutrients over the longer term. The new application of marsh sediment and nutrient data to ecosystem estimates of nutrient processing strongly suggests the need for a reexamination of estuarine nutrient budgets in systems with extensive coastal marshes.

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Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

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