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Phosphorus as an integral component of global marine biogeochemistry

Nature Geoscience volume 14, pages 359–368 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Phosphorus (P) is essential for life, but most of the global surface ocean is P depleted, which can limit marine productivity and affect ecosystem structure. Over recent decades, a wealth of new knowledge has revolutionized our understanding of the marine P cycle. With a revised residence time (~10–20 kyr) that is similar to nitrate and a growing awareness that P transformations are under tight and elaborate microbial control, the classic textbook version of a tectonically slow and biogeochemically simple marine P cycle has become outdated. P moves throughout the world’s oceans with a higher level of complexity than has ever been appreciated before, including a vast, yet poorly understood, P redox cycle. Here, we illustrate an oceanographically integral view of marine P by reviewing recent advances in the coupled cycles of P with carbon, nitrogen and metals in marine systems. Through this lens, P takes on a more dynamic and connected role in marine biogeochemistry than previously acknowledged, which points to unclear yet profound potential consequences for marine ecosystems, particularly under anthropogenic influence.

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Fig. 1: The marine P cycle with an emphasis on the North Atlantic.
Fig. 2: Distribution of DOP concentrations and contribution to TDP over the global ocean.
Fig. 3: Metals and metalloenzymes coupled with P cycling.
Fig. 4: Reduced-P compounds and microbial transformations, including APO and DPO in natural environments.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. Letscher for providing access to published data and J. D. Diaz for assistance with online data retrieval from the Protein Data Bank. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under grants 1737083, 2001212 (S.D.), 1736967, 1948042 (J.M.D.), 1737240 (S.D.), 1559124 and 2015310 (J.M.D.), as well as the Simons Foundation under grant 678537 (J.M.D.) and the Sloan Foundation (J.M.D.).

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Author notes

  1. These authors jointly supervised this work: Solange Duhamel, Julia M. Diaz.

  2. These authors contributed equally: Jamee C. Adams, Kahina Djaoudi, Viktoria Steck, Emily M. Waggoner.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Solange Duhamel, Kahina Djaoudi & Emily M. Waggoner

  2. Geosciences Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Julia M. Diaz, Jamee C. Adams & Viktoria Steck

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  1. Solange Duhamel
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Contributions

This Review is the result of a team effort with all authors contributing to writing the overall manuscript. J.M.D. and S.D. are co-first authors, and J.C.A., K.D., V.S. and E.M.W. are co-contributing authors on this publication. S.D. and J.M.D. jointly and equally conceived, led, and supervised this paper. S.D. and J.M.D. co-led the introductory material, J.M.D. led the carbon section, J.C.A. led the nitrogen section, V.S. led the metals section, and K.D. and E.M.W. co-led the P redox section. S.D. led the boxes. K.D., V.S. and E.M.W. prepared figures and supplementary materials with input from all authors.

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Correspondence to Solange Duhamel or Julia M. Diaz.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Peer review information Nature Geoscience thanks Adina Paytan and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Primary Handling Editors: Clare Davis; Xujia Jiang.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Distribution of dissolved and particulate organic N:P and C:P ratios over the global ocean.

Modeled (colormap) DON to DOP (upper panel) and DOC to DOP ratios (lower panel) at 50 m depth and, observed (coloured circles) PON:POP and POC:POP ratios between the surface and 50 m depth (see Supplementary Information 2). The arrows by the colour scales indicate the Redfield ratios. Note the deviations from the C:N:P Redfield ratio of 106:16:1 (represented in white), with red and blue hues indicating values greater and lower than Redfield, respectively. The sparse particulate data are particularly due to the few POP measurements available.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Metal content of phosphoric ester hydrolases.

Percent of P-monoester (EC 3.1.3) and P-diester hydrolases (EC 3.1.4) that are metal-dependent, illustrating that APs can vary greatly in their metal content. While Mn and Fe occur more often in mono- compared to diesterases, Zn and Co occur more frequently in diesterases over monoesterases.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Information 1 and 2, and Table 1.

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Duhamel, S., Diaz, J.M., Adams, J.C. et al. Phosphorus as an integral component of global marine biogeochemistry. Nat. Geosci. 14, 359–368 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-021-00755-8

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