Organic carbon (OC), to a large extent, was consumed for respiration and released as CO2.
Organic carbon accumulation in the sediments was about 25% of the organic carbon added
with the feed. Similar studies were conducted in shrimp ponds. Lin and Nash (1996)
estimated that 26% of the nitrogen and 24% of the phosphorus applied as feed
accumulated in the sediments of intensive shrimp ponds. Funge-Smith and Briggs
(1998) found that the sediments accumulated 24% of the feed nitrogen and 84% of the
phosphorus. Paez-Osuna et al. (1997) reported that in a semi-intensive shrimp operation
the sediments accumulated 63.5% of the added phosphorus. Paez-Osuna et al. (1999)
estimated that 47.2% of the phosphorus input was adsorbed by the sediments in shrimp
ponds, while Martin et al. (1998) found that up to 38% of the total nitrogen input
accumulated in the sediments.