Estuarine ecosystems production

Stevenson, J.C., T.W. Jones, W.M. Kemp, W.R. Boynton, and J.C. Means. 1982. An overview of atrazine dynamics in estuarine ecosystems. Pages 71-94 in Proceedings of the Workshop on Agrichemicals and Estuarine Productivity, Beaufort, North Carolina, September 18-19, 1980. Avail, from Natl. Ocean. Atmos. Admin., Off. Mar. Pollut. Assess., Boulder, CO. 

Pinckney, J.L., and Zingmark, R.A. (1993) Modeling the annual production of intertidal benthic microalgae in estuarine ecosystems J. Phycol. 2, 396 -07. 

Nixon, S. W., C. A. Oviatt, J. Frithsen, and B. Sullivan. 1986. Nutrients and the productivity of estuarine and coastal marine ecosystems. Journal of the Limnological Society of Southern Africa 12 43-71. 

Differential metal concentrations in tissues or organs, as well as the growth rates and production of sea grasses78 and salt marsh plants,81 have been used to calculate the potential cycling/turnover of metals within a system and/or the annual export of contaminants from an estuarine environment to adjacent coastal waters. Similar studies have been performed for macroalgae23 and have provided valuable information on contaminant transport and bioavailability processes within and between aquatic ecosystems, since contaminants associated with decaying plant biomasses will become bio-available through herbivory or the detritivore food web. 

Table 13.6 Annual average rates of gross primary production, total respiration, and net ecosystem metabolism (NEM) (g O2 m-2d-1) at National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) sites.

The growth and movement of human populations have resulted in a significant stressor in the form of invasive species that has altered global biodiversity patterns. For example, the introduction of invasive species worldwide has changed the community composition and physical structure of many ecosystems (Elton, 1958 Vitousek et al., 1997). Estuarine systems, like the northern San Francisco Bay, have experienced serious declines in productivity at the base of the food web over recent decades after the introduction of the... 

Mann, K. H. (1988). Production and use of detritus in various freshwater, estuarine and coastal marine ecosystems. Limnology and Oceanography, 33, 910-30. 

Figure 11.8 Upper frame Direct relationships between dissolved inorganic N input and primary production in a various estuarine and coastal ecosystems. Figure adapted from Nixon eta/., 1996. Lower frame Direct relationship between dissolved inorganic N input and phytoplankton biomass, as mean annual chlorophyll a content of several Western Australian estuarine systems. Figure adapted fromlwomey andThompson, 2001.

Figure 18.21 Comparative analyses of fisheries characteristics in relation to trophic status of estuarine and coastal ecosystems around the world (A) fisheries harvest versus primary production (re-drawn from Nixon and Buckley, 2002) (B) ratio of pelagic-to-demersal fish caught in fishery plotted versus phytoplankton chlorophyll concentration (natural logarithm of hoth x and y variahles). Figure 18.21 (B) was re-drawn from de Leiva Moreno et al. (2000) with Chesapeake Bay data added for two time periods.

Horrigan, S. G., Montoya, J. P., Nevins, J. L., and McCarthy, J. J. (1990). Natural isotopic composition of dissolved inorganic nitrogen in the Chesapeake Bay. Estuar. Coast. Shelf Sci. 30, 393—410. Horrocks, J. L., Stewart, G. R., and Dennison, W. C. (1995). Tissue nutrient content of Gracilaria spp. (Rhodophyta) and water quality along an estuarine gradient. Mar. Freshw. Res. 46, 975—983. Howarth, R. W. (1988). Nutrient limitation of net primary production in marine ecosystems. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 19, 89-110. 

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