Impact of atmospheric nitrogen deposition on phytoplankton productivity in the South China Sea

Abstract

The impacts of anthropogenic nitrogen (N) deposition on the marine N cycle are only now being revealed, but the magnitudes of those impacts are largely unknown in time and space. The South China Sea (SCS) is particularly subject to high anthropogenic N deposition, because the adjacent countries are highly populated and have rapidly growing economies. Analysis of data sets for atmospheric N deposition, satellite chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), and air mass back trajectories reveals that the transport of N originating from the populated east coasts of China and Indonesia, and its deposition to the ocean, has been responsible for the enhancements of Chl-a in the SCS. We found that atmospheric N deposition contributed approximately 20% of the annual biological new production in the SCS. The airborne contribution of N to new production in the SCS is expected to grow considerably in the coming decades.