ABSTRACT
The data are suggestive of some mechanisms for retention and processing of nutrients by open Great Lakes marshes. This chapter demonstrates the problems inherent in obtaining mass balance nutrient data on marshes open to seiche-induced water movements. It focuses on a study of a segment of Peter's Marsh on lower Green Bay. The study was initiated in June, 1983. The object of the investigation is to assess the flux of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus between the marsh and the waters of Green Bay and determine the potential value of exported particulates for filter-feeding zooplankton species of the adjacent open waters. The coastal marshes in Green Bay offer an opportunity to test in a freshwater system the paradigm arising from salt marsh studies and to determine the contribution, if any, these coastal marshes make to the lacustrine ecosystem. Analyses of nitrogen and phosphorus compounds were done on a Technicon auto-analyzer following Standard Methods.
