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Nitrogen cycle

Natural organic tendency

Dissolved nitrogen is usually thought to be transported from land to sea in inorganic form. But the predominance of organic nitrogen in streams in temperate South America suggests that this view needs a rethink.

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Figure 1: Forms of nitrogen storage in, or export from, two ecosystems in North and South America.

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Correspondence to Nico van Breemen.

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van Breemen, N. Natural organic tendency. Nature 415, 381–382 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/415381a

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