Narragansett Bay Sediment Fluxes
History
Narragansett Bay has been well studied in terms of water temperature, phytoplankton, benthic fluxes, and fish. In particular, Professor T. Smayda started a weekly phytoplankton survey in the 1950s and in 1959 Charles J. Fish initiated the Fish Trawl Survey to quantify the seasonal occurrences of migratory fish. Both of these initial efforts have continued over the last five decades and represent some of the longest time series for these ecological variables available. As part of her dissertation work with Dr. Scott Nixon, Wally Fulweiler began collecting sediment cores for net N2 fluxes in Narragansett Bay in 2005. Inspired by these long-term efforts and with the help and support of many, she has continued to collect these fluxes. The goal of this website is to bring these data to interested stakeholders and to build this long-term time series.
Why measure net N2 fluxes?
We are interested in the ability of marine sediments to alter the nitrogen (N) cycle. Denitrification, the microbial conversion of nitrate to di-nitrogen gas, provides an important ecosystem service of N removal. In fact, in some systems sediment denitrification can remove more than 50% of the human-derived N entering the ecosystem, thereby decreasing cultural eutrophication. The opposite process, N-fixation, converts di-nitrogen gas into biologically usable N and can promote water column productivity. We quantify the balance of these processes in order to better estimate the N budget for Narragansett Bay. We are also interested in the long-term patterns of N2 fluxes as Narragansett Bay changes under warming water temperatures and reduced N loading.
Data
We have made the data available through 2014 via figshare: Long-term sediment oxygen demand and net N2 fluxes in Narragansett Bay, RI (USA). Please check back for updates that will be coming soon.
Funding Sources
Over the years this research has been supported by various funding sources. Funding to Fulweiler has been provided by:
Acknowledgements:
Many people have helped along the way from teaching us the ways of the mass spectrometer to helping collect sediment cores and analyze data. Special thanks to: A. Al-Haj, J. Cornwell, P. Dimilla, S. Donovan, L. Fields, S. Foster, A. Giblin, S. Granger, K. Hanks, A. Hanson, E. Heiss, J. Iccano, M. Horn, T. Kana, J. Krumholz, C. McManus, J. Mercer, C. Mueller, M. Owens, A. Pimenta, N. Ray, MK Rogener, I. Sánchez-Viruet, , R. Schweiker, M. Traber, and J.Tucker.
Narragansett Bay has been well studied in terms of water temperature, phytoplankton, benthic fluxes, and fish. In particular, Professor T. Smayda started a weekly phytoplankton survey in the 1950s and in 1959 Charles J. Fish initiated the Fish Trawl Survey to quantify the seasonal occurrences of migratory fish. Both of these initial efforts have continued over the last five decades and represent some of the longest time series for these ecological variables available. As part of her dissertation work with Dr. Scott Nixon, Wally Fulweiler began collecting sediment cores for net N2 fluxes in Narragansett Bay in 2005. Inspired by these long-term efforts and with the help and support of many, she has continued to collect these fluxes. The goal of this website is to bring these data to interested stakeholders and to build this long-term time series.
Why measure net N2 fluxes?
We are interested in the ability of marine sediments to alter the nitrogen (N) cycle. Denitrification, the microbial conversion of nitrate to di-nitrogen gas, provides an important ecosystem service of N removal. In fact, in some systems sediment denitrification can remove more than 50% of the human-derived N entering the ecosystem, thereby decreasing cultural eutrophication. The opposite process, N-fixation, converts di-nitrogen gas into biologically usable N and can promote water column productivity. We quantify the balance of these processes in order to better estimate the N budget for Narragansett Bay. We are also interested in the long-term patterns of N2 fluxes as Narragansett Bay changes under warming water temperatures and reduced N loading.
Data
We have made the data available through 2014 via figshare: Long-term sediment oxygen demand and net N2 fluxes in Narragansett Bay, RI (USA). Please check back for updates that will be coming soon.
Funding Sources
Over the years this research has been supported by various funding sources. Funding to Fulweiler has been provided by:
- Coastal Institute at the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island
- Rhode Island Sea Grant
- Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council
- National Science Foundation (Award #0926859)
- Sloan Foundation
Acknowledgements:
Many people have helped along the way from teaching us the ways of the mass spectrometer to helping collect sediment cores and analyze data. Special thanks to: A. Al-Haj, J. Cornwell, P. Dimilla, S. Donovan, L. Fields, S. Foster, A. Giblin, S. Granger, K. Hanks, A. Hanson, E. Heiss, J. Iccano, M. Horn, T. Kana, J. Krumholz, C. McManus, J. Mercer, C. Mueller, M. Owens, A. Pimenta, N. Ray, MK Rogener, I. Sánchez-Viruet, , R. Schweiker, M. Traber, and J.Tucker.