Decadal changes in nutrient fluxes and environmental effects in the Jiulong River Estuary.
Estuaries are areas of both freshwater and seawater that are partially enclosed with contact to the open sea and a flow of fresh water. Although the Jiulong River Estuary has a relatively small catchment, this area was found to exhibit high nutrient fluxes. The nutrient fluxes showed obvious fluctuations for different years. The Jiulong River Estuary was predominantly P-limited, and was slowly moving towards higher DIN:DIP and DSi:DIP ratios as the nitrate concentrations increased. The high nutrient fluxes into the estuary may affect estuarine ecosystems by the alteration of DO concentrations in bottom waters, causing harm to benthic fauna due to a lack of oxygen, triggering algal blooms. Additionally, the Jiulong River Estuary was slowly moving towards lower DSi:DIN and DSi:DIP ratios along with the change of time scales, which caused nutrient limitation of phytoplankton growth as P and Si levels decreased and became more limiting.
['Wu|Gaojie|G|', 'Cao|Wenzhi|W|', 'Huang|Zheng|Z|', 'Kao|Chih-Ming|CM|', 'Chang|Chang-Tang|CT|', 'Chiang|Pen-Chi|PC|', 'Wang|Feifei|F|']
D002681:China D002980:Climate D017753:Ecosystem D004784:Environmental Monitoring D063366:Estuaries D005068:Eutrophication D009566:Nitrates D009792:Oceans and Seas D010839:Phytoplankton D045483:Rivers D012623:Seawater
Nutrient fluxes Jiulong River Estuary Nutrient limitation Eutrophication