Macrophyte Community Response to Nitrogen Loading and Thermal Stressors in Rapidly Flushed Mesocosm Systems.

ABSTRACT: A mesocosm system was developed to simulate estuarine conditions characteristic of short water-residence time ecosystems of the Pacific Coast of North America, and used to evaluate the response of multiple macrophyte metrics to gradients of NO3 loading and temperature. Replicated experiments found that few responses could be directly attributed to NO3 loading up to 6 x ambient. Some response metrics exhibited weak relationships with nutrient loading but could not be resolved with available statistical power. While direct nutrient responses were found for some species-specific metrics (e.g. green macroalgal growth and biomass, tissue N%, etc.), many patterns were confounded with temperature. Temperature generally had a larger effect on response metrics than did nutrient load. Experimental m

SUBMITTER: Kaldy JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5716360 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature