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Intra-annual Variability in Primary Producer Groups and Nitrogen Dynamics in an Intermittently Closed Estuary Exposed to Mediterranean Climate

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Abstract

Nutrient dynamics in estuaries are temporally variable in response to changing physical–chemical conditions and biogeochemical processes involving primary producer groups such as phytoplankton, microphytobenthos, seagrass and macroalgae. In order to reveal intra-annual changes in the biomass of primary producer groups and associated changes in estuarine nutrient dynamics, we developed a box model, coupling water inflows and outflows and nitrogen dynamics in Wilson Inlet, a large, central-basin-dominated, intermittently closed estuary exposed to a Mediterranean climate in Western Australia. The model is calibrated and validated with monitoring data, aquatic plant biomass estimates and biogeochemical rate measurements. Macrophytes and their microalgal epiphytes appear to rapidly assimilate nutrients from the first flush from the catchment in winter, but this buffer capacity then ceases, and a phytoplankton ‘bloom’ develops in response to subsequent river runoff events in spring. Significant amounts of bioavailable nitrogen are exported to the ocean because phytoplankton predominance occurs while the sand bar is breached. Surface sediments play a key role for nitrogen dynamics: In late spring to autumn, high light availability at the sediment surface stimulates high primary production by microphytobenthos, leading to reduced benthic ammonium fluxes particularly in the deep basin. Microphytobenthos contributes about 60% of annual whole-system primary production. Despite high benthic primary production, nitrogen release from sediments is the biggest nitrogen source to the estuary.

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Acknowledgements

We want to thank Ian Webster (CSIRO) for kindly providing the original model developed during the Port Philip Bay study. Malcolm Robb and his colleagues from the Aquatic Science Branch in the Department of Water in Western Australia are thanked for providing monitoring and bathymetry data and for their support over many years. We thank Neale Jefferey and Jodie Smith for preparing Fig. 1, and we are grateful for comments provided by Rachel Przeslawski and Jodie Smith (Geoscience Australia) on an early version of the manuscript. The two anonymous reviewers are particularly thanked for their thorough and constructive reviews. This article has received permission for publication by the CEO of Geoscience Australia, Dr. Chris Pigrim.

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  1. Geertje J. Pronk

    Present address: Lehrstuhl für Bodenkunde, Department für Ökologie und Ökosystemmanagement, Wissenschaftszentrum Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, 85350, Freising-Weihenstephan, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geoscience Australia, Marine and Coastal Environment Group, GPO Box 378, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia

    Ralf R. Haese & Geertje J. Pronk

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Correspondence to Ralf R. Haese.

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Haese, R.R., Pronk, G.J. Intra-annual Variability in Primary Producer Groups and Nitrogen Dynamics in an Intermittently Closed Estuary Exposed to Mediterranean Climate. Estuaries and Coasts 34, 557–568 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-010-9363-5

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