Exponential Collapse of Benthic Depurative Capacity in A Eutrophic Tropical Marine Ecosystem: A Threshold Response to Organic Nitrogen Loading

Microbial decomposition of particulate organic matter in sediments can substantially modulate eutrophication of nearshore marine environments. Flux budgets for nitrogen compounds and quantification of rates of microbial transformation can provide important information on the process of eutrophication. This survey documents sediment nitrogen budgets for a eutrophic nearshore marine environment at La Parguera on southwest coast of Puerto Rico, including consideration of the organic fraction in addition to microbial transformations.

Sediments of the inshore channel at La Parguera denote the input of heavy organic loads with low redox potentials and high ammonium contents. Benthic fluxes of dissolved organic nitrogen are below those recorded for ammonium. These observations suggest that nearshore tropical sediments subject to heavy nitrogen loads act as a sink for organic nitrogen and that ammonification is a key process in the release of nitrogen from sediments to the water column. Nitrification and denitrification rates are low overall and inversely related to the redox potential. Depuration of excess nitrogen through denitrification is ineffective in these sediments. in contrast to more robust temperate environments, our work demonstrates that tropical marine systems are particularly susceptible to eutrophication given their limited capacity for depuration of excess nitrogen.