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Spatial and temporal variability in nutrient concentrations in Liverpool Bay, a temperate latitude region of freshwater influence

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Abstract

This paper presents data for the temporal and spatial distribution of nutrients in Liverpool Bay between 2003 and 2009 and an analysis of inputs of nutrients from the major rivers. The spatial distribution of winter nutrient concentrations are controlled by the region of freshwater influence (ROFI) in Liverpool Bay through the mixing of riverine freshwater and Irish Sea water, with strong linear relationships between nutrient concentration and salinity between December and February. The location of highest spring and summer phytoplankton biomass reflects the nutrient distributions as controlled by the ROFI. Analysis of 7 years of data showed that the seasonal cycle of winter maximum nutrient concentrations in February and drawdown in April/May is a recurrent feature of this location, with the timing of the drawdown varying by several weeks between years. A comparison of observed nutrient concentrations in Liverpool Bay with those predicted from inputs from rivers has been presented. Nutrient concentrations in the rivers flowing into Liverpool Bay were highly variable and there was reasonable agreement between predicted freshwater nutrient concentrations using data from this study and riverine nutrient concentrations weighted on the basis of river flow, although the exact nature of mixing between the rivers could not be determined. Predicted Irish Sea nutrient concentrations in the winter were lower than those reported for the input waters of the North Atlantic, supporting findings from previous work that nitrogen is lost through denitrification in the Irish Sea.

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Acknowledgements

Work was carried out by Cefas under Defra contracts A1228 and SLA25 and work carried out at NOCS was funded by a NERC grant through the Oceans 2025 project. The authors would like to acknowledge the NERC funding of the Coastal Observatory and the Environment Agency and CEH for the provision of the Harmonized Monitoring data and National River Flow Archive data, respectively. The authors would like to thank all the seagoing staff at Cefas, NOCL, University of Bangor, and University of Liverpool and the ships’ crew who assisted in the collection of samples. We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), Pakefield Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk, NR33 0HT, UK

    Naomi Greenwood, Jon Barry, David B. Sivyer, David J. Pearce, Olga Andres & Helen E. Lees

  2. National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, European Way, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK

    David J. Hydes & Susan E. Hartman

  3. School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3BX, UK

    Claire Mahaffey

  4. National Oceanography Centre, Joseph Proudman Laboratory, 6 Brownlow Street, Liverpool, L3 5DA, UK

    Andrew Wither

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  1. Naomi Greenwood
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  2. David J. Hydes
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  3. Claire Mahaffey
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Correspondence to Naomi Greenwood.

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Responsible Editor: Matthew Robert Palmer

This article is part of the Topical Collection on the UK National Oceanography Centre’s Irish Sea Coastal Observatory

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Greenwood, N., Hydes, D.J., Mahaffey, C. et al. Spatial and temporal variability in nutrient concentrations in Liverpool Bay, a temperate latitude region of freshwater influence. Ocean Dynamics 61, 2181–2199 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-011-0463-y

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