Evaluation of eelgrass bed nitrogen cycle using an ecosystem model

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An eelgrass bed ecosystem model incorporating epiphyte and epifauna compartments has been developed and applied to the Lake Notoro eelgrass bed. The model could reproduce the nitrogen cycle in the eelgrass bed ecosystem reasonably well. In terms of a nitrogen cycling in the eelgrass bed, the representative nitrogen cycle in the water column was identified as inorganic nitrogen in the water column–epiphyte–epifauna–inorganic nitrogen, whereas the one in the benthic system was identified as inorganic nitrogen in the interstitial water–eelgrass–detritus–bacteria–inorganic nitrogen in the interstitial water. Just outside of the eelgrass bed, the nitrogen cycle was very simple and the magnitude of fluxes between state variables was very low compared to that of the eelgrass bed.