Nutrient exchanges between the water column and a subtidal benthic microalgal community

Exchanges of nutrients between a shallow (ca. 1 m) nodiment and the water column were measured in the York River, Virginia, during 1983, using transparent and opaque plexiglass hemispheres. Exchanges of nitrate and phosphate were not significantly different between dome treatments, but ammonium release was significantly reduced within the transparent domes. Within the dark domes, ranges of hourly rates of ammonium and phosphate exchange were 21 to 364 μmol N m² and 3 to 76 μmol P m² while those in the transparent domes were ?162 to 244 and 6 to 80, respectively. Negative values denote uptake by the sediment. Nitrate 1 nitrite exchanges averaged only 15% and 17% of the total dissolved luorganle nitrogen exchange in the dark and transparent domes, respectively.