The effect of long range nitrogen deposition on nutrient limitation of phytoplankton growth in lakes in South West Greenland

There is growing evidence of ecological change in Arctic lakes. The majority of this evidence comes from lake sediment records which suggest that the composition of algal communities has changed, and that algal productivity has increased in the past 150 years. This change has commonly been attributed to a change in climate. However, such interpretation often ignores other drivers of change such as long range nitrogen (N) deposition, which has been shown to occur over a similar period of time. The region of South West Greenland is typical of much of the Arctic in terms of lake density, precipitation patterns and vegetation. It also provides a unique opportunity to investigate long range N deposition as a possible driver of ecological change as it has not experienced rapid 20^th century warming which has been observed elsewhere in the Arctic. There is also evidence from ice core records that long range N deposition has increased in Greenland during the past 150 years. The effect of N deposition on nutrient limitation of phytoplankton growth was investigated in 20 freshwater lakes situated in 3 study regions in South West Greenland. The three regions span a gradient of increasing precipitation (and predicted N deposition) from the inland ice sheet margin to the coast. Nutrient limitation was investigated 3 times between August 2010 and July 2011, allowing both seasonal and regional differences to be explored. Phytoplankton growth was assessed over 14 days following in vivo fluorescence of sub-surface water samples treated with one of six nutrient additions: control (no addition), P (6 μM NaH₂PO₄), NH₄⁺ (90 μM NH₄Cl), NO₃^- (90 μM NaNO₃), P + NH₄⁺ (final concentrations as before), P + NO₃^- (final concentrations as before). A clear response to nutrient addition was found in 95 % of all bioassays, and of these, co-nutrient limitation was most commonly recorded (70 %). Regardless of region, phytoplankton growth appeared to show a seasonal change in nutrient limitation, with a shift from P- to co-limitation most commonly recorded.