Physical and microbial processing of dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) along an oligotrophic marsh/mangrove/estuary ecotone (Taylor Slough and Florida Bay) for August 2003 in South Florida, USA

A better understanding of the biogeochemical cycling of nutrients entering Florida Bay is a key issue regarding the restoration of the Everglades. In addition to precipitation, the other major source of freshwater to Florida Bay is from Taylor Slough and the C-111 Basin in the northeast section of the Bay. While it is known that these areas deliver significant amounts of N to the Bay, a significant portion of this is in the form of dissolved organic N (DON). The sources, environmental fate and bioavailability to microorganisms of this DON are however, not known. Should this DON be readily available, any increased load as a function of restoration changes might have an impact on internal phytoplankton bloom dynamics. No significant flocculation or precipitation of DOM occurred with increase in salinity, meaning that terrestrial DOM does not get trapped in the sediments but stays in the water column where it subjected to photolysis and advective transport. Sunlight has a significant effect on the chemical characteristics of DOM. While the DOC levels did not change significantly during photo-exposure, the optical characteristics of the DOM were modified. The environmental implications of this are conflicting: photo-induced polymerization may stabilize the DOM by reducing its bioavailability while photolysis may make the DOM more labile. Overall, DON bioavailability was relatively low in this region. Even though the amount of DON loaded to the bay may be significant, the fraction of DON available for microbial cycling is much smaller. The amount of N supplied by recycling may be a significant portion of the total DIN pool. All this must be considered in context with the proposed CERP modifications to flows. As of the latest initial Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Project (CERP) update, the flows to Taylor Slough and C-111/Panhandle Basis are not predicted to change very much from base conditions. Therefore we do not expect any great increases in TN loading in this region. In contrast, the proposed flow increases to the Shark River Slough are large and may have significant effects on transport of DOM to the Southwest Florida Shelf. We believe that future efforts in DON characterization and bioavailability should be concentrated in this area