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Biogeochemistry

The depths of nitrogen cycling

Nature volume 493, pages 616–618 (2013)Cite this article

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Breakdown of dissolved organic nitrogen in the ocean had been thought to be the preserve of microbes at the surface. The discovery that these microbes are not up to the task calls for a reassessment of the biogeochemistry of this nitrogen pool.

The largest pool of fixed nitrogen on Earth is dissolved organic nitrogen in the oceans, but its dynamics and transport between ocean zones are largely unknown. Writing in Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Letscher et al.1 report that the observed concentration gradients of dissolved organic nitrogen in the oceans are the result of the interplay between high production in upwelling regions, the transfer of these waters from the surface to lower depths, and degradation by specifically adapted microbial communities. This contradicts the existing theory of the dynamics of nitrogen cycling.

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Figure 1: Breaking down dissolved organic nitrogen (DON).

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Maren Voss is in the Department of Biological Oceanography, Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research, Warnemünde, 18119 Rostock, Germany.,

    Maren Voss

  2. Susanna Hietanen is in the Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland.,

    Susanna Hietanen

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  1. Maren Voss
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  2. Susanna Hietanen
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Correspondence to Maren Voss or Susanna Hietanen.

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Voss, M., Hietanen, S. The depths of nitrogen cycling. Nature 493, 616–618 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/493616a

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