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Consistent patterns of nitrogen fixation identified in the ocean

Nitrogen gas dissolved in the ocean must be fixed — converted into more-reactive compounds — before it can be used to support life, but the regions in which this nitrogen fixation occurs have been elusive. Not any more.
  1. Nicolas Gruber

    1. Nicolas Gruber is at the Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland.

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In 1934, the oceanographer Alfred C. Redfield took a leap into the unknown. He posited1 that marine nitrogen-fixing organisms — microorganisms that convert nitrogen gas (N2) dissolved in the sea into ‘fixed’ nitrogen compounds that can be used by other organisms to sustain life — might help to explain why the ratio of fixed nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in sea water is similar to their ratio in marine phytoplankton, even though no nitrogen-fixing organisms had been identified at the time. Since then, the search for the regions in which nitrogen fixation occurs, and the role of fixation in controlling the marine nitrogen cycle, have engaged biogeochemists and biologists alike2. But despite much progress, the patterns, rates and limiting factors that control marine nitrogen fixation have remained elusive3.

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Nature 566, 191-193 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-00498-y

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