Nutrient dynamics in European water systems – the management perspective emerging from ELOISE, a European cluster of Land – Ocean interaction studies

Figures & data

Table I. List of ELOISE projects (C for completed projects) and their matching with the three topics selected in the digest by Escaravage et al. (2004): 1, nutrient pathways from source to target; 2, nutrient processing in estuaries and coastal areas; 3, effects on estuarine food webs functioning

Project acronym	Project title (URL)	1	2	3
ANICE	Atmospheric Nitrogen Inputs into the Coastal Ecosystem. C	X
BASIC	Baltic Sea Cyanobacteria. C		X
BIOGEST	Biogases Transfers in Estuaries. C (http://www.co2.ulg.ac.be/biogest/)		X
COMWEB	Comparative Analysis of Food Webs Based on Flow Networks: Effects of Nutrient Supply on Structure and Function of Coastal Plankton Communities. C		X	X
COSA	Coastal Sands as Biocatalytical Filters (http://eu-cosa.org/en/index.html)	X	X
DANLIM	Detection and Analysis of Nutrient Limitation in Coastal Plankton Communities across a Hierarchy of Temporal and Physiological-Systemic Scales (http://www.fimr.fi/en/tutkimus/muututkimus/danlim.html)		X	X
DANUBS	Nutrient Management in the Danube Basin and Its Impact on the Black Sea (http://danubs.tuwien.ac.at/)	X	X
DOMAINE	Dissolved Organic Matter (DOM) in Coastal Ecosystems: Transport, Dynamics and Environmental Impacts (http://www.domaine.ku.dk/)	X	X
ECOFLAT	The Eco-metabolism of Estuarine Intertidal Flat. C (http://www.nioo.knaw.nl/CEMO/ECOFLAT/ecoflat.htm)		X	X
EROS-21	Biogeochemical Interactions between the Danube River and the North-Western Black Sea. C	X	X	X
ESCAPE	Entangled Sulfur and Carbon Cycles in Phaeocystis-dominated Ecosystems. C		X
EULIT	Effects of Eutrophicated Seawater on Rocky Shore Ecosystems Studied in Large Littoral Mesocosms. C		X
EUROTROPH	Nutrients Cycling and the Trophic Status of Coastal Ecosystems (http://www.co2.ulg.ac.be/eurotroph/)	X	X
INCA	Integrated Nitrogen Model for European Catchments (http://www.rdg.ac.uk/INCA/)	X	X
ISLED	Influence of Rising Sea Level on Ecosystem Dynamics of Salt Marshes. C (www.nioo.knaw.nl/PROJECTS/ISLED/main.htm)		X
KEYCOP	Key Coastal Processes in the Mesotrophic Skagerrak and the Oligotrophic Northern Aegean: a Comparative Study. C (http://biologi.uio.no/mzk/keycop/home.htm)			X
MEAD	Marine Effects of Atmospheric Deposition (http://www.uea.ac.uk/env/mead)	X
METROMED	Dynamic of Matter Transfer and Biogeochemical Cycles: Their Modelling in Coastal Systems of the Mediterranean Sea. C		X
NAME	Nitrate in Aquifers and Influences on Carbon Cycling in Marine Ecosystems. (www.natur.ribeamt.dk/name)	X
NICE	Nitrogen Cycling in Estuaries. C (http://www.dmu.dk/LakeandEstuarineEcology/NICE)		X
NTAP	Nutrient Dynamics Mediated Through Turbulence and Plankton Interactions (www.icm.csic.es/bio/projects/ntap/)		X
OAERRE	Oceanographic Applications to Eutrophication in Regions of Restricted Exchange. C (http://www.oaerre.napier.ac.uk/)			X
PHASE	Physical Forcing and Biogeochemical Fluxes in Shallow Coastal Ecosystems. C (http://www.nioo.knaw.nl/cemo/phase/main.htm)		X	X
RANR	Regional Analysis of Subsurface Retention of Nitrogen and the Impact of Such Retention on the Export of Nitrogen from Land to Sea. C (http://www.mai.liu.se/ranr/index.html)	X	X
ROBUST	The Role of Buffering Capacities in Stabilizing Coastal Lagoon Ecosystems. C		X
SUB-GATE	Submarine Groundwater-fluxes and Transport-processes from Methane-rich Coastal Sedimentary Environments. C (http://www.geomar.de/projekte/Sub-GATE/)	X	X

Table II. Features observed within the different fields of research (atmospheric deposition, rivers and groundwater inputs, nutrient transformations, food-web impacts) listed against the corresponding common concepts (in rows) that have been identified from the digest on nutrient dynamics

	Topics
Common concepts	(1) Atmospheric deposition	(2) Rivers and groundwater inputs	(3) Nutrient transformations	(4) Food-web impacts
(A) Nutrient pathways and effects are scale-dependent.	–Effects of deposition are local and transient.	–Above-/below-ground streams control the spatio-temporal extent of the nutrient pathway.	–How nutrients are used in coastal system strictly dependent on location and season.	–Different effects of nutrients in Atlantic and Mediterranean.
	–Differential effects in Atlantic and Mediterranean waters.		–Local conditions determine the processes (vegetation).	–Different effects of nutrients in Atlantic and Mediterranean.
			–Importance of very small scale (turbulence).	–Stochastic trophic match/mismatch, control when nutrients are retained or exported.
(B) Nutrient transformation and effects have non-linear dynamics.	–Deposition depends upon the non-linear dynamic interaction between the sea surface and the atmosphere.	–Long residence time of groundwater alters the response of river nitrogen concentration to reduced applications.	–Sediment buffering creates stable states with different reactivity potentials to nutrient enrichment.	–Beside quantities, ratio controls the destination for nutrients in the system.
		–Biological processes in streams induce non-conservative behaviour, increase the system complexity.	–Alternative stable states in physical–biological interactions.	–Physical forcings (e.g. stratification, flushing) control the output.
				–Pelagic food webs react very differently to nutrient inputs, depending on community composition.
(C) Present knowledge of nutrient transformation is not exhaustive.	–Atmospheric chemistry, a rather new domain with many unknowns.	–Contribution of biological processes to nutrient transformations in streams remain a black box.	–New or unexpected processes have been identified: DNRA, ANAMMOX (denitrification pathways).	–Trophic pathways are not defined between all potential food web actors.
(D) Integrated models needed to integrate aspects above.	–Integrated models of atmospheric circulation required for a consistent monitoring and efficient mitigation measures.	–Emerging linear structures have been obtained with statistic-based metamodels.	–New modelling tools have been developed to match the needs.	–Biological interactions are not to be considered out of their physical environment.
		–Coupled modelling of carbon and nutrients needs much more development.	–The modelling scale should be considered in relation to the issue.

Figure 1. The framework DPSIR for integrated assessment of the effects of the response of policy and measures on the driving forces of environmental pressure and on its changes in the state of the environment and its ecological impact (Oenema 2004).

Escaravage , V , Herman , P MJ and Heip , C HR . 2004 . Nutrient dynamics in European water systems (a digest from the Eloise results) Available: http://www.eloisegroup.org/themes/nutrients/contents.htm

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Oenema , O . 2004 . Governmental policies and measures regulating nitrogen and phosphorus from animal manure in European agriculture . J Anim Sci , 82 : 196 – 206 .

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