Le phosphore et l'azote en mer Mediterranee, bilans et fertilite potentielle

Abstract

The UNEP (1977) study concerning the terrestrial discharges of phosphorus and nitrogen into the Mediterranean Sea is used in this work, along with the calculated values of the water fluxes (Bethoux, 1979, 1980). Owing to the phosphorus concentrations in the deep waters and the terrestrial discharges, the balance of this element requires low concentrations in the surface layers (< 0.1 μg P l −1) which appear to be in agreement with the measured phosphate concentrations in the Strait of Gibraltar and in the Strait of Sicily. The phosphorus cycle in the Mediterranean Sea is characterised by the transfer of the terrestrial and Atlantic influxes from the surface layer to the intermediate and deep layers. The geographic distribution of the terrestrial discharges is highly asymmetric, and the vertical movements of the water masses in certain regions induce an important hydrologic recycling of phosphorus. The potential fertility (linked to the assimilation of the available phosphorus) is estimated from the local surface phosphorus flows and from the hydrologic recycling. Its values range, in the Western basin, between 9 and 86 g C m −2y −1 in the Southern and Northern parts of this basin, respectively. In addition to biological reasons, the nitrogen budget in the Mediterranean Sea should be comparable to that of phosphorus because the geographical variations of the nitrate concentrations in the deep waters and the distribution of terrestrial discharges are similar to those of phosphorus. However, the relatively low values of terrestrial discharges of nitrogen proposed by UNEP (compensating about 28% of the outflowing nitrate fluxes in the Strait of Gibraltar) do not allow a balance of this nutrient unless we introduce a high concentration (too high in the author's opinion) in the Atlantic surface waters.