Abstract
The rivers Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt discharge about 75 km3.y−1 of fresh water into the North Sea. The distributions of fresh water, nutrients, chlorophyll and zooplankton during the growing season of plankton indicate that the outflow from the rivers maintains high concentrations of N, P, Si and Fe in a 40 km wide coastal zone, where biomass and production of algae and copepods are enhanced. The highest plankton biomass coincides with the highest temperature and Fe concentration south of the Rhine/Meuse outlet, but not with the lowest salinity and highest N, P and Si concentrations found in the northward flowing river plume. A model of phytoplankton growth predicts a much higher algal production and biomass for the river plume than is actually measured. This indicates the existence of still unknown causes of growth limitation or increased mortality. It also suggests that increased nutrient discharge (eutrophication) multiplied the summer flagellate biomass by a factor 2 to 4 since 1930, and caused a shift in dominance from diatoms to other algae.
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© 1986 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Fransz, H.G. (1986). Effects of Fresh Water Inflow on the Distribution, Composition and Production of Plankton in the Dutch Coastal Waters of the North Sea. In: Skreslet, S. (eds) The Role of Freshwater Outflow in Coastal Marine Ecosystems. NATO ASI Series, vol 7. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-70886-2_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-70886-2_16
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