Nutrient dynamics in european water systems and ELOISE

Nutrient Dynamics in European Water Systems
Synthesis Results

1. Introduction

The European coastal zones are areas of great concern because of growing problems associated with increasing inputs of nutrients. These have resulted in a higher incidence of harmful algal blooms and other eutrophication phenomena and caused deleterious impacts on fisheries and tourism (Lancelot et al. 1989) . We will document the new insights gained from the ELOISE research on topics related with the role of coastal systems in land-ocean interaction.

Based on the up to date list of publications from the ELOISE projects, three mainstream topics in the field of nutrient dynamics were identified and are presented here as:

1. Relating nutrient fluxes to land based activities, atmospheric and river processes.
2. Nutrient processing in estuaries and coastal areas-what processes govern the fate?
3. Effects of altered nutrient discharges on the functioning of coastal and estuarine food webs.

The following table displays the list of ELOISE projects (C for completed) that can be matched (x) with the three topics mentioned above:

Project Acronym	Project Title	Topics
Project Acronym	Project Title	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)		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	x	x
DANLIM	Detection and analysis of nutrient limitation in coastal plankton communities		x	x
DANUBS	Nutrient management in the Danube Basin and its impact on the Black Sea		x
DOMAINE	Dissolved organic matter (DOM) in coastal ecosystems		x
ECOFLAT	The eco-metabolism of estuarine intertidal flat (C)		x	x
EROS-21	Biogeochemical interactions between the Danube River and the NW 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	x	x
INCA	Integrated nitrogen model for european catchments	x	x
ISLED	Influence of rising sea level on ecosystem dynamics of salt marshes (C)		x
KEYCOP	Key coastal process in the mesotrophic Skagerrak and the oligotrophic Northern Aegean: A comparative study (C)			x
MEAD	Marine effects of atmospheric deposition	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	x
NICE	Nitrogen cycling in estuaries (C)		x
NTAP	Nutrient dynamics mediated through turbulence and plankton interactions		x
PHASE	Physical forcing and biogeochemical fluxes in shallow coastal ecosystems (C)		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)	x	x
ROBUST	The role of buffering capacities in stabilising coastal lagoon ecosystems (C)		x
SUBGATE	Submarine groundwater fluxes and transport processes from methane-rich coastal sedimentary environments	x	x

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2. Characterisation of nutrient sources >>