Coastal ecosystem dynamics: Relevance of benthic processes

Abstract

It is believed that the ecological balance and productivity of marine coastal environments are directly related to nutrient supplies from various sources including riverine-estuarine-coastal exchange, upwelling, precipitation, nitrogen fixation, and nutrient regeneration. In south Texas coastal waters, where phytoplankton productivity is comparable to other high productive coastal areas, many nutrient sources are suspected, but are not equally important in supplying sufficient nutrients to drive coastal production dynamics. Nitrogen regeneration from the benthos is implicated from a 2.5-y study of the nutrient cycling processes important in contributing to production levels in these waters. Sediments of the south Texas coastal habitat appear to exhibit a sensitive coupling with overlying waters, where a strong negative correlation exists between the random periodicity of external supplies of ‘new’ nitrogen to the coastal system and the rate at which nitrogen is recycled by sediments. This pattern buffers these waters against extended periods of low input of nutrients from external sources. The development of a conceptual scheme for nutrient cycling in this coastal habitat has provided a more holistic framework from which we can derive an objective assessment of the importance of mechanisms in the system. All data collected so far suggest that the primary production of organic matter and passage through the benthic habitat of these coastal waters is an important pattern responsible for the continued maintenance of productivity in the south Texas coastal ecosystem.