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Nitrogen Flow and the Interaction of Boston Harbor with Massachusetts

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Nitrogen Flow and the Interaction of Boston Harbor with Massachusetts Estuaries Vol. 20, No. 2, p. 365-380 June 1997 Nitrogen Flow and the Interactionof Boston HarborWith Massachusetts Bay JOHN R. KELLY1 3 Willow Lane Rye, New Hampshire 03870 ABSTRACT: This paper summarizes evidence that most of the considerable nitrogen loading (-8, 470 mmol total N m-2 yr-1) to Boston Harbor (Massachusetts, USA) is expelled to shallow shelf waters of Massachusetts Bay, where it strongly influences ecological dynamics. Examination of nitrogen concentrations in the harbor, compared with loading, indicated that removal processes are active in the harbor. Comparison to other estuarine systems showed that the harbor's nitrogen concentrations are consistent with its loading, if they are corrected for tidal flushing effects on the water residence time. Furthermore, extensive measurements of sediment denitrification confirmed that rates of N2 gas loss are high in an absolute sense (-600-800 mmol N m-2 yr-l) but nonetheless remove only a small portion (<10%) of the annual land-derived nitrogen loading. Burial in sediments apparently removes only about 2% of the N input, implying export to offshore environments as the major removal process (-88-90% of N input). Western Massachusetts Bay receiving waters were examined for a signature of export from the harbor. Data consistently show a gradient of decreasing nitrogen concentrations from the harbor to about 10-20 km into the bay. In many cases, plots of nitrogen concentrations versus salinity show nearly conservative mixing character, which implies virtual export. Seasonally, the data suggest most of the export from the harbor in winter is as dissolved inorganic forms (NH4+, NO3-, NO2-). In summer, export is dominated by the outflow of organic nitrogen forms. Chlorophyll export is evident as well, suggesting that the nutritional coupling of the harbor and bay in summer involves organic fertilization of the bay's surface water. Finally, high-resolution studies over different stages of the tidal cycle help refine understanding of the advection of chlorophyll and stimulation of in situ chlorophyll growth at the seaward edge of the tidal excursion into the bay. Introduction to the harbor is exported to the bay. Observational evidence Estuaries often receive very high nutrient load- shows that the quality of nitrogen export varies ing compared to other ecosystems (Kelly and Levin seasonally. Special water-quality mapping 1986; Nixon et al. 1986a, b). Worldwide, Boston studies are presented that resolve ecological fea- Harbor, Massachusetts (USA), is one of the most tures at fine scales and illuminate the influence of the highly nutrient-loaded estuaries. Most of the nutri- harbor's summertime export upon nitrogen cy- in western ent loading to Boston Harbor comes from effluent cling Massachusetts Bay. discharge, so current and future wastewater man- Data Sources and Methods agement practices affect nutrient concentrations in Boston Harbor and its offshore shelfwater This paper synthesizes a large body of field, lab- adjacent and data associated with an exten- system in western Massachusetts Bay. A variety of oratory, analyses sive marine carried out studies recently have been conducted in the har- monitoring program large- from 1991 to 1994. Data are drawn from a bor-bay region and this paper provides a synthesis ly variety of that are available (see Acknowl- of results related to nitrogen cycling. reports publicly Some individual results are The paper begins with fundamental information edgments). study pub- lished, while some are in or on Boston Harbor nitrogen loading. Knowing the preparation already allows one to examine concentrations and submitted to the open literature. Detailed methods loading are available in the cited but flows of nitrogen within the harbor in a reports, important budgetary elements are in the context of some context. Where does the input go? Are there nitro- highlighted results and, moreover, brief method de- gen sinks within the harbor? What is the relation- specific are for and/or ship between harbor nitrogen cycling and the bay, scriptions provided major unique which receives harbor outflow? measurements that provide the foundation for conclusions of this The focus in this paper is western Massachusetts synthesis. Bay as well as Boston Harbor, because a variety of Sampling Sites evidence shows that most of the nitrogen loading Monitoring stations were located throughout Boston Harbor, Massachusetts Bay, and some of 1Author: tele: 603/430-8378; fax: 603/430-8378; e-mail: rkel- Cape Cod Bay and included a variety of measure- [email protected]. ments that are not discussed here (e.g., benthic ? 1997 EstuarineResearch Federation 365 This content downloaded from 158.121.199.176 on Wed, 29 Jan 2014 10:51:19 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 366 J. R. Kelly -71.10 -71.05 -71.00 -70.95 -70.90 -70.85 -70.80 -70.75 Fig. 1. The study area in Boston Harbor and western Massachusetts Bay. The seaward boundary of the harbor is arbitrarily defined by a line from Deer Island, at the northern harbor's channel to the bay, to Hull, a hooked peninsula bordering the southern harbor's channel to the bay. A string of islands extending from the harbor into the bay separates northern and southern regions of the harbor. Dark crosses mark water column stations where measurements in 1994 included total nitrogen. Of the three harbor water column stations, only the Deer Island station was sampled prior to 1994. This station, at the edge of the northern harbor, lies just seaward of several major MWRA effluent outfalls. Thin crosses show additional water column stations where standard hydrocast sampling was conducted, but only dissolved inorganic forms of nitrogen were measured. Dots locate sediment stations for denitrification and benthic flux studies. Continuous towed instrument sampling was conducted along a track (dashed line) from the entrance to inner Boston Harbor through the northern channel to a point in the bay almost 20 km from Deer Island; bottom bathymetry along this track is shown in Fig. 11. infauna, winter flounder, organic contaminants). similar to in situ harbor temperatures. Efflux of N2 The data subset examined focuses on Boston Har- from surface sediments (-5 cm) into overlying wa- bor, western Massachusetts Bay, and the exchange ter and gas phases were corrected for diffusion by of material, particularly nitrogen (N), between the parallel flux determinations on anoxic control estuarine harbor system and its adjacent shallow cores (Nowicki 1994). Rates for Boston Harbor shelf. Besides information on N loading, the paper sediments were reported by Kelly and Nowicki relies on measurements of water quality as sampled (1992, 1993). Denitrification rates (as loss of N2 gas by vertical hydrocasts and continuous in situ sam- to overlying water) were measured at three pri- pling techniques (Fig. 1). Benthic flux measure- mary stations representing different sediment ments were made at several stations in the harbor types in the northern and southern harbor; how- (Fig. 1). ever, a total of six locations throughout the harbor were sampled (Fig. 1). From September 1991 Sediment Denitrification and Benthic Flux Studies through October 1994, denitrification rates for Measurements of sediment denitrification were about 40 station-occupations were obtained, span- made during 1991-1994 (Nowicki et al. 1997) us- ning all seasons. Rates of benthic metabolism and ing a direct gas flux technique (Nowicki 1994) nutrient flux made for the same stations during modified from Seitzinger et al. (1980). Replicate 1991-1994 are summarized by Giblin et al. (1997). sediment cores were collected by diver. In the lab- oratory, the surface 5 cm of the sediments were Water Quality Measurements transferred intact to a 7.8-cm-dia glass chamber, Water quality sampling and laboratory analytical where N2 release rates were measured under gas- methods followed general oceanographic conven- tight conditions over several days at temperatures tions and were reported by Albro et al. (1993). Tra- This content downloaded from 158.121.199.176 on Wed, 29 Jan 2014 10:51:19 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions EstuaryN Flows to ShallowShelf 367 ditional vertical sampling included measurements where values in parentheses indicate standard er- of temperature and salinity with a CTD (SeaBird rors. The regression slope was significant (p < SBE-9). Density was calculated following Fofonoff 0.001), but the intercept was not significantly dif- and Millard (1983). The sampling system also in- ferent (p = 0.30) from zero. cluded a dissolved oxygen sensor (SeaBird SBE- 13), a fluorometer for measuring in situ fluores- Results and Discussion cence (Chelsea III), and a transmis- Aquatracka FRESHWATER FLOW AND NITROGEN LOADING someter for attenuation of red light (SeaTech 25 EARLY1990s) cm-pathlength). GO-Flo or Niskin sampling bottles (CIRCA (5-1 or 10-1), attached to a rosette, were used to Alber and Chan (1994) summarized both fresh- sample water at about five depths spaced through- water flow and nitrogen data for -1990-1993. To- out the water column at each station. Sampled wa- tal freshwater flow averaged -44 m3 s- 1, dominat- ter was used for analyses of N forms, other nutri- ed by inputs from tributaries (-21 m3 s-1; 48% of ents (P, Si), and a variety of other analyses, includ- total) and from effluent (39% of total). Inputs ing (in vitro) extracted chlorophyll a (Parsons et were calculated for northern and southern harbor al. 1984). NH4+ (Lambert and Oviatt 1986) and subareas (Fig. 1). Most of the total freshwater flow NO3- + NO2- (Lambert and Oviatt 1986) were (34.5 m3 s-1, 78%) and the effluent freshwater flow measured at all depths and locations. Chlorophyll (11.6 of 17 m3 s-1, 67%) was to the northern har- a, dissolved organic N (Valderrama 1981), and par- bor. ticulate N (Lambert and Oviatt 1986) were mea- Alber and Chan's (1994) nitrogen loading esti- sured only at two depths of most stations (Fig.
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