The influence of cyanobacteria blooms on the attenuation of nitrogen throughputs in a Baltic coastal lagoon

Abstract

We combined a mass balance approach with measurements of air–water and sediment–water nitrogen (N) exchange to better understand the mechanisms attenuating N throughputs in a eutrophic coastal lagoon. We were particularly interested in how seasonal shifts in external versus internal N fluxes and the transition from diatom- to cyanobacteria- dominated phytoplankton communities influence N storage and loss to the atmosphere. We found that on an annual basis almost all of the N removed by the lagoon was due to sediment storage following the spring diatom bloom. This period was characterized by high riverine inputs of dissolved inorganic nitrogen, high rates of assimilatory conversion to particulate nitrogen (PN), and net accrual of N in sediments. By contrast, the larger summer bloom was associated with low sediment N storage, which we attribute in part to the presence of positively-buoyant cyanobacteria. Low settling rates during cyanobacteria blooms favored export of PN to the Baltic Sea over sediment accrual in the lagoon. In addition, summer dinitrogen (N2) fixation by cyanobacteria largely offset annual N2 losses via denitrification. These findings show that cyanobacteria blooms diminish N attenuation within the lagoon by altering the balance of N exchange with the atmosphere and by promoting export of particulate N over sediment burial.