Eutrophication and nutrient pollution in shallow marine ecosystems are very poorly understood; this project investigates various feedbacks that may occur during eutrophication that either aggravate or partially mitigate the effects of nutrient pollution.

Nitrogen pollution (and the resulting eutrophication) is one of the greatest threats to the ecological integrity and functioning of coastal marine ecosystems. In the U.S., two-thirds of coastal rivers and bays are moderately or severely degraded from nitrogen pollution. The problem continues to grow in the U.S. and globally. Both a “white-paper panel” of the Ecological Society of America (Vitousek et al. 1997) and the National Climate Change Assessment concluded that nitrogen pollution is one of the greatest consequences of human-accelerated global change on coastal oceans. Costanza et al. (1997) estimated that, when not degraded, coastal marine ecosystems are among the most valuable of all systems to society in terms of ecosystem services. Shallow marine ecosystems -- the focus of this proposal -- are both particularly valuable as habitat and are especially sensitive to the effects of eutrophication.
The research will materially increase understanding of the sensitivity of these systems and lead toward better management of eutrophication. The proposal includes extensive educational and outreach activities to help develop the next generation of scientists to work on such issues and to communicate the findings to water-quality managers and the public. One product of the research will be an improved management-oriented model for shallow marine ecosystems.

Our project began in 2005 and is a five-year effort. We are making a series of biogeochemical and ecological process measurements, characterizing the sediment chemistry and ecological community structure, and analyzing net flows of nutrients at the whole-ecosystem scale. We will continue to track these over the next several years, as nitrogen loading to the site is expected to greatly increase.

Long-term, we expect that our project will lead to more effective protection of shallow marine ecosystems from nutrient pollution.

Coastal water quality

National Science Foundation