An ecosystem level experiment on nutrient limitation in temperate coastal marine environments

Which nutrients limit primary production in coastal marine environments? Using large (13 000 1) mesocosms with sediments we explored nutrient limitation in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, USA, over a 9 wk period. Separate and combined additions of phosphorus and nitrogen were made to the enclosures. Phytoplankton biomass, daytime whole system oxygen production and nighttime whole system respiration showed an approximately 5-fold increase in nitrogen and nitrogen + phosphorus treatments, whereas phosphorus treatments had somewhat lower phytoplankton biomass and metabolism than controls. In these whole system experiments nitrogen was the nutrient most limiting to primary production.