The theory goes like this: As fertilizer runoff carries inorganic nitrogen into the bay, it feeds the growth of algae other than the algae that cause brown tide.

Alder roots contain nitrogen-fixing bacteria, which greatly increase the amount of inorganic nitrogen present in soils.

Content of major pollutants, such as inorganic nitrogen and phosphate, remains high in contaminated seawater.

Corals also absorb nutrients, including inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus, directly from water.

The inorganic nitrogen that is emitted from septic tanks and other human-derived sewage is usually in the form of NH.

The key contaminants identified in lowland rivers were dissolved inorganic nitrogen, dissolved reactive phosphorus and faecal contamination.

The lake is alkali and saliferous with high levels of oxygen, phosphorus, and phosphate, but low levels of inorganic nitrogen.

This is of great importance as primary productivity in many marine environments is regulated by the availability of inorganic nitrogen.

The primary sources of inorganic nitrogen used by marine algae are nitrate and ammonium.

But algae and other microorganisms are now thriving, feeding on phosphates and inorganic nitrogen from treated fecal matter in discharged wastewater.