Future trends in nutrient export to the coastal waters of South America: Implications for occurrence of eutrophication

Abstract

We analyze future trends in nutrient export to the coastal waters of South America, with a special focus on the causes of nutrient export and their potential effects. Nutrient Export from Watersheds (NEWS) model results for South America are presented, including trends in human activities and the associated river export of nutrients for the period 1970-2050. For 25 areas in coastal waters of South America where eutrophication or hypoxia has been observed, we investigate how these relate to NEWS model output. For selected watersheds we discuss the causes of increased nutrient loadings of rivers and future trends as projected by the NEWS models. Copyright 2010 by the American Geophysical Union.