HR: 0830h
AN: A21A-10    [Abstracts]
TI: Atmospheric Nitrogen Deposition and its Potential Effects on the Mullica River-Great Bay Ecosystem in Southern New Jersey
AU: * Haag, J E
EM: jhaa6027@yahoo.com
AF: Montclair State University Dept. of Earth and Environmental Studies, 1 Normal Ave, Montclair, NJ 07043
AU: Gao, Y
EM: gaoy@mail.montclair.edu
AF: Montclair State University Dept. of Earth and Environmental Studies, 1 Normal Ave, Montclair, NJ 07043
AB: To characterize atmospheric inorganic nitrogen deposition to the Mullica River-Great Bay Estuary and to examine its impact on the coastal ecosystem, atmospheric sampling has been conducted at Tuckerton in southern New Jersey since March 2004. A total of 43 precipitation samples have been collected on an event basis using a wet-only automatic precipitation sampler. A total of 23 aerosol samples were also taken during this period of time with a high-volume aerosol sampler. Chemical analysis was performed using a Dionex Ion Chromatograph to determine the concentrations of nitrate and ammonium in precipitation and associated with aerosols. Atmospheric deposition of nitrate and ammonium were calculated using simple wet and dry atmospheric deposition models. The results show that nitrate and ammonium concentrations vary strongly with season, and the highest concentrations were observed during the spring. The average concentrations in precipitation for nitrate and ammonium in the samples collected to date are 2.41 mg l^-1 and 0.56 mg l^-1, respectively. The average aerosol concentrations are 3.7 μg m^-3 for nitrate and 1.5 μg m^-3 for ammonium. The results also indicate that wet deposition is the main contributor to the atmospheric nitrogen entering the Mullica River-Great Bay Estuary. High wet deposition rates of nitrogen were seen in the spring and summer with total average values of 429.08 mg m^-2 month^-1 for the spring and 229.28 mg m^-2 month^-1 for the summer. These results will be combined with satellite ocean color to investigate the effect of atmospheric nitrogen deposition on coastal primary productivity in this ecosystem. The atmospheric nitrogen data can also be combined with water column nutrient data that is being collected at the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve, to assist in generating a nutrient budget to better manage the coastal resources of the Mullica River-Great Bay Estuary.
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801)
DE: 0312 Air/sea constituent fluxes (3339, 4504)
DE: 0315 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions
DE: 1615 Biogeochemical processes (4805)
DE: 4504 Air/sea interactions (0312)
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly