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Oceanography: An ultimate limiting nutrient

Nature volume 400, pages 511–512 (1999)Cite this article

Several elements in the ocean — most notably nitrogen, phosphorus, iron and silicate — are essential for the growth of phytoplankton. Like fertilizers applied to the land, the supply of N, P, Fe and Si in seawater upwelling from below, or in airborne dust deposition from above, determines the rate of production of new organic matter at the surface. It is unlikely, however, that all four elements are equally limiting to growth. Is one clearly more important than the others and, if so, on what timescales? On page 525of this issue1 Tyrrell makes a strong case that it is phosphorus, in the form of dissolved phosphate (PO43-), that is the ocean's ‘ultimate limiting nutrient’.

Of all the nutrients in the ocean, PO43- has the longest residence time at around 50,000 years2. Residence times of the other nutrients are much shorter — 5,000 years for NO3-(nitrate)3, 15,000 years for SiO2(silica)4 and perhaps 30 years for Fe. Phosphate enters the ocean in rivers, as a product of continental weathering; it is lost from the ocean by being buried in sediments. But like Houdini, PO43- is remarkable in its ability to escape burial. Only 1% or so of the upwelled phosphorus taken up by phytoplankton is trapped in sediments5. So, considering its rate of input and output from the system, the marine standing stock of PO43- is fairly large.

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  1. NOAAs Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton University, PO Box 308, Princeton, 08542, New Jersey, USA

    J. R. Toggweiler

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  1. J. R. Toggweiler
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Toggweiler, J. Oceanography: An ultimate limiting nutrient. Nature 400, 511–512 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/22892

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