Influence of water discharged from a reservoir on reclaimed land into Isahaya Bay (Kyushu, Japan) on the regeneration of NH4+ in the water column

Abstract

In 1997, the inner part of Isahaya Bay on the west coast of Ariake Bay, western Japan, was separated from the sea by dikes, leading to the formation of a freshwater reservoir. Since the Isahaya Reclamation Project began in the 1990s, red tides and hypoxia have become more common in the bay. Eutrophic high-turbidity water from the reservoir is frequently discharged into the bay, so NH4+ regenerated from organic matter in the discharge may be a source of nutrients for the red tides. In this work, we mixed reservoir water and seawater from the bay in experiments aimed at quantifying the NH4+ regeneration caused by the direct decomposition of labile organic matter in the high-turbidity drainage water. By comparing the results of field monitoring and mixing experiments, we estimated that the NH4+ regeneration rate under the influence of the drainage water was 192–501 μmol m−2 h−1, which was 31.5–46.8% higher than the natural NH4+ regeneration rate. This suggests that the additional NH4+ regeneration induced by the drainage water is non-negligible and that the organic matter in the drainage water may be an important source of NH4+ for red tides in the bay. This is the first study to provide data on the non-negligible amount of NH4+ regenerated upon the direct decomposition of labile organic matter in high-turbidity water drained from a reservoir on reclaimed land into the bay.