Nitrogen Cycling in the North Atlantic Ocean and its Watersheds: Report of the International SCOPE Nitrogen Project

Human activity has dramatically altered the global nitrogen cycle in recent decades. These changes are not evenly distributed around the world; rather, they are greatest in regions of significant industrial and agricultural activity. The North Atlantic Ocean and its contributing watersheds constitute a region which has seen perhaps the greatest increase in anthropogenically-derived nitrogen. In May of 1994, the International Scope Nitrogen Project, with funding from the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the United Nations Environment Program, and the World Meteorological Organization, sponsored a workshop held on Block Island, RI, USA, entitled Nitrogen Dynamics of the North Atlantic Basin . More than 50 scientists from 12 different countries convened with a unique set of goals: an integrated and comprehensive estimate of the current nitrogen cycle of the ocean, coastal systems, and contributing watersheds of the North Atlantic region; an analysis of human-induced changes to those cycles; and an assessment of the current and future effects of human-induced changes to nitrogen cycling throughout the globe. This text presents their findings.