Stoichiometric nutrient balance and origin of coastal eutrophication

We present here an analysis of the stoichiometry of dissolved nutrients in 10 large world rivers, Amazon, Changjiang, Huanghe, Mackenzie, Mississippi, Po, Rhine, Seine, Yukon and Zaire, and in two river-dominated coastal ecosystems prone to eutrophication, the northern Adriatic Sea and the northern Gulf of Mexico. Our analysis suggests that proportions of dissolved silica (Si), nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) in rivers carrying nutrients of anthropogenic origin, as well as in the coastal waters strongly influenced by those rivers, have changed historically in a way that now closely approximates the Redfield ratio (Si:N:P=16:16:1). It is likely that coastal phytoplankton productivity has increased under these favourable nutrient conditions and was accompanied by an increasing incidence of noxious phytoplankton blooms and bottom water hypoxia.