Nitrogen (N) has traditionally been regarded as the primary limiting nutrient to algal growth in marine coastal waters, but recent studies suggest that phosphorus (P) can be limiting in carbonate-rich environments. To better understand the importance of P. alkaline phosphatase activity (APA) was measured in reef macroalgae in seven counties of south Florida ; several significant trends emerged : 1) APA decreased geographically from the highest values in Dada>Monroe>Palm Beach>St. Lucie>Broward>Martin>Lee counties 2) APA varied temporally with increasing nutrient-rich runoff in the wet season 3) APA varied due to taxonomic division Phaeophyta>Rhodophyta>Chlorophyta 4) Nutrient enrichment experiments demonstrated that increased N-enrichment enhanced P-limitation while increased P decreased P-limitation. These results suggest that high APA observed in carbonate-rich waters of Dade County and low APA in Broward County resulted from high nutrient inputs associated with anthropogenic nutrient pollution. / by Courtney Kehler. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fau.edu/oai:fau.digital.flvc.org:fau_4030 |
| Contributors | Kehler, Courtney., Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Center for Environmental Studies |
| Publisher | Florida Atlantic University |
| Source Sets | Florida Atlantic University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | ix, 56 p. : ill., maps, electronic |
| Coverage | Florida, Florida |
| Rights | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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