North Atlantic river inputs

These changes may be related to the two warm winters that occurred in 1998 and 1999, which could affect the balance between input of freshwater from the rivers and saline water from the Bosporus and the winter formation of the oxygen-rich CIL. These years are remarkable for the increase of the Sea surface temperature (Fig. 8), increase of temperature in the core of the CIL [82,85-87], and shoaling of the CIL in the density field [48]. All these events can be connected with the weather condition oscillations, as follows from North Atlantic oscillation (NAO) index behavior (Fig. 8). 

Authors calculate that a total of 143 x lO molN/yr. is removed via coupled nitrification/denitrification on the North Atlantic continental shelf. This estimate is expected to underestimate total sediment denitrification because it does not include direct denitrification of nitrate from the overlaying water. The rate of coupled nitrification/denitrification calculated is greater than the N inputs from atmospheric deposition and river discharge combined (Figure 22). 

Table 6. Sewage and wastewater inputs to the North Atlantic and its river basins.

Another way to view river fluxes is to consider the ocean basins into which they empty. While the Arctic Ocean occupies <5% of the global ocean basin area (17 x 10 km ), the total watershed draining into the Arctic is 21 x 10 km, meaning a land/ocean ratio of 1.2. In contrast, the South Pacific accounts for one-quarter of the global ocean area, but its land/ ocean ratio is only 0.05 (Table 4). The greatest fresh water input occurs in the North Atlantic (largely... 

Figure 3.5 Correlation between nutrient inputs to the catchment and streams/rivers on a small regional scale. Nitrate concentrations in streams are shown to be directly related to fertilizer applications in croplands in the mid-Atlantic region of North America. (Modified from Jordan et al., 1997.)...

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