Comparison of precipitation and land runoff as sources of estuarine nitrogen

The seasonal and year-to-year variation of bulk precipitation as a source of total N, nitrate and ammonia is reported for a 7-year period at the Rhode River, a subestuary of Chesapeake Bay, U.S.A. These values are placed in perspective by comparison with analogous nitrogen loading due to watershed discharges.Although year-to-year variations were important, in an average year about the same amount of readily available nitrogen entered the system via precipitation as entered in land runoff and, during the summer and fall, precipitation was the largest source.