Every growing season at the mouth of large rivers, there are large areas where nothing lives. Of growing concern is eutrophication in the ocean, or ‘nutrient overload,’ in many of our nation’s waters. Excess algae grows and, as it dies and decomposes, oxygen is consumed to the point where animals can no longer live there. EMPOWER students recently discussed how scientists can better understand this phenomenon through nutrient addition experiments.

While the idea of artificially adding nutrients that can have such devastating effects might sound suspect to an environmentally concerned public, the quantity from these experiments pales in comparison to the amount coming from agriculture in the Midwest and other anthropogenic sources. By elevating nutrients like ammonium in stream channels, researchers have been better able to understand the fate and processes that control nutrient cycling in our environment. They found that nutrients may be consumed in smaller streams and never reach the ocean but that these systems cannot handle ever increasing nutrient loading.

The group began formulating how best to design their own nutrient addition experiments in preparation for a field course at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest that many of the students will be attending this summer. Although not all trainees will use these techniques in their own research, exposure to these methods and research findings left the group with a renewed interest in the complexities inherent in natural systems and the challenges studying them.

Story submitted by Nathan Chien, Emily Gaub, and Amanda Schulz