Atmospheric deposition influence on phytoplankton production

During periods of biomass growth, the contribution of atmospheric deposition to the total nutrient loading in marine environment can have important affects on offshore areas. Atmospherically deposited nitrogen is generally in mineralised form and is readily available for uptake by marine biota. Both phosphorus and nitrogen will be considered as key atmospherically deposited nutrients in the Adriatic. It is shown that many estuarine systems display phosphorus P limitation in the spring, switching to nitrogen N limitation in summer. For these reasons, atmospheric deposition should be taken into account when developing nutrient management strategies. For the North Adriatic Sea little attention has until now been paid to the effect of the atmospheric deposition of nutrients. This project is focus on the Northern Adriatic Sea with the aim to understand the role of atmospheric and surface processes associated with dry and wet depositions, involving small-scale meteorology, water column chemistry and biology, and to understand the dynamics of marine response in an offshore receptor area of the Adriatic Sea, based upon investigations of rates of phytoplankton response to changing nutrient content. For a yearly cycle, nutrients depositions and its effects on water column properties and on particle vertical fluxes are studied in “Acqua Alta” Oceanographic tower, correlated to the meteorological and the hydrodynamic condition.