NITROGEN UPTAKE, DISSOLVED ORGANIC NITROGEN RELEASE, AND NEW PRODUCTION

In oceanic, coastal, and estuarine environments, an average of 25 to 41 percent of the dissolved inorganic nitrogen (NH4+ and NO3-) taken up by phytoplankton is released as dissolved organic nitrogen (DON). Release rates for DON in oceanic systems range from 4 to 26 nanogram-atoms of nitrogen per liter per hour. Failure to account for the production of DON during nitrogen-15 uptake experiments results in an underestimate of gross nitrogen uptake rates and thus an underestimate of new and regenerated production. In these studies, traditional nitrogen-15 techniques were found to underestimate new and regenerated production by up to 74 and 50 percent, respectively. Total DON turnover times, estimated from DON release resulting from both NH4+ and NO3- uptake, were 10 +/- 1, 18 +/- 14, and 4 days for oceanic, coastal, and estuarine sites, respectively.