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Ocean science

Balancing ocean nitrogen

Nature Geoscience volume 3, pages 383–384 (2010)Cite this article

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The ocean's nitrogen budget has escaped quantification. A modelling study shows how a small shift in the nitrate-to-phosphate uptake ratio of phytoplankton has a large effect on calculated nitrogen fixation rates.

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Figure 1: Distribution of excess phosphate in the surface of the eastern tropical and subtropical Pacific Ocean computed from World Ocean Atlas data10.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wolfgang Koeve and Paul Kähler are in the Department of Biogeochemical Modelling, Leibniz-Institut für Meereswissenschaften, Düsternbrooker Weg 20, D-24105 Kiel, Germany.,

    Wolfgang Koeve & Paul Kähler

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  1. Wolfgang Koeve
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  2. Paul Kähler
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Correspondence to Wolfgang Koeve.

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Koeve, W., Kähler, P. Balancing ocean nitrogen. Nature Geosci 3, 383–384 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo884

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