Nitrogen Cycling in Sea Waters

An attempt to quantify the cycling of N in the oceans suggests that losses of combined N greatly exceed gains, a discrepancy that points to the inadequacy of our knowledge of the processes involved. Combined N in particulate matter sedimenting into deep water is partly returned to the euphotic zone in the form of nitrate, the rate of this upward flux of new nitrogen being the main determinant of the upper limit of biomass in any given area. Within the euphotic zone combined N is rapidly recycled by bacteria and animals and in oligotrophic areas the ammonium, urea, and perhaps organic, N that they make available is the main source maintaining phytoplankton growth.

[1]  D. Jones,et al.  Microbiological and zooplankton activity at a front in Liverpool Bay , 1981, Nature.

[2]  G. Rau.  Low 15N/14N in hydrothermal vent animals: ecological implications , 1981, Nature.

[3]  F. Tabita,et al.  Nitrogen fixation in intertidal environments of the Texas Gulf coast , 1981 .

[4]  J. Fuhrman,et al.  Microbial uptake of dissolved organic matter in Mcmurdo Sound, Antarctica , 1981 .

[5]  J. Fuhrman,et al.  Cycling of organic nitrogen in marine plankton communities studied in enclosed water columns , 1980 .

[6]  O. Mitamura,et al.  In situ measurement of the urea decomposition rate and its turnover rate in the Pacific Ocean , 1980 .

[7]  R. Rasmussen,et al.  Nitrous oxide measurements in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean , 1980 .

[8]  B. Peterson,et al.  Particulate organic matter flux and planktonic new production in the deep ocean , 1979, Nature.

[9]  H. Singh,et al.  The distribution of nitrous oxide (N2O) in the global atmosphere and the Pacific Ocean , 1979 .

[10]  Paul J. Harrison,et al.  Limiting nutrient patchiness and its rôle in phytoplankton ecology , 1979 .

[11]  R. Eppley,et al.  Nitrate and phytoplankton production in southern California coastal waters1 , 1979 .

[12]  J. C. Goldman,et al.  Growth rate influence on the chemical composition of phytoplankton in oceanic waters , 1979, Nature.

[13]  J. C. Goldman,et al.  Nitrogenous Nutrition of Marine Phytoplankton in Nutrient-Depleted Waters , 1979, Science.

[14]  T. Blackburn,et al.  Estimation of Sediment Denitrification Rates at In Situ Nitrate Concentrations , 1979, Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

[15]  D. Biggs.  Non-biogenic fixed nitrogen in Antarctic surface waters , 1978, Nature.

[16]  W. A. Kaplan,et al.  Production and release of N2O from the Potomac Estuary 1 , 1978 .

[17]  Gilles Billen,et al.  A budget of nitrogen recycling in North Sea sediments off the Belgian coast , 1978 .

[18]  Wayne S Gardner,et al.  Stability and composition of terrestrially derived dissolved organic nitrogen in continental shelf surface waters , 1978 .

[19]  W. G. Harrison.  Experimental measurements of nitrogen remineralization in coastal waters 1 , 1978 .

[20]  L. Gordon,et al.  Nitrous oxide in the oxygen minimum of the eastern tropical North Pacific: evidence for its consumption during denitrification and possible mechanisms for its production , 1978 .

[21]  E. H. Ross,et al.  Evidence for and rate of denitrification in the Arabian Sea , 1978 .

[22]  S. Stanley,et al.  Nitrogen fixation in Atlantic deep-sea and coastal sediments , 1978 .

[23]  K. Fanning,et al.  Interstitial nitrate profiles and oxidation of sedimentary organic matter in the eastern equatorial atlantic. , 1977, Science.

[24]  O. Holm‐Hansen,et al.  Physiology and chemical composition of nitrogen-fixing phytoplankton in the central North Pacific Ocean , 1977 .

[25]  K. Porter,et al.  Enhancement of Algal Growth and Productivity by Grazing Zooplankton , 1976, Science.

[26]  F. A. Richards,et al.  An analysis of the horizontal regime of denitrification in the eastern tropical North Pacific1 , 1976 .

[27]  R. Barnes,et al.  N2 : Ar, nitrification and denitrification in southern California borderland basin sediments1 , 1975 .

[28]  S. A. Conover.  Nitrogen utilization during spring blooms of marine phytoplankton in Bedford Basin, Nova Scotia, Canada , 1975 .

[29]  D. Z. Piper,et al.  Marine Phosphorite Deposits and the Nitrogen Cycle , 1975, Science.

[30]  O. Holm‐Hansen,et al.  Nitrogen fixation in the North Pacific Ocean , 1974 .

[31]  C. M. Yentsch,et al.  The Physiological State with Respect to Nitrogen of Phytoplankton from Low-Nutrient Subtropical Water as Measured by the Effect of Ammonium Ion on Dark Carbon Dioxide FIXATION1 , 1971 .

[32]  J. Goering,et al.  a Note on Denitrification in SEAWATER1 , 1970 .

[33]  J. Goering,et al.  UPTAKE OF NEW AND REGENERATED FORMS OF NITROGEN IN PRIMARY PRODUCTIVITY1 , 1967 .

[34]  A. Keys,et al.  THE DISTRIBUTION OF AMMONIA IN THE WATERS OF THE GULF OF MAINE , 1938 .

[35]  B. Berland,et al.  Proposal for an Abridged Nitrogen Turnover Cycle in Certain Marine Planktonic Systems Involving Hypoxanthine-Guanine Excretion by Ciliates and their Reutilization by Phytoplankton , 1980 .

[36]  H. Hübel,et al.  Nitrogen Fixation During Blooms of Nodularia in Coastal Waters and Backwaters of the Arkona Sea (Baltic Sea) in 1974 , 1980 .

[37]  H. L. Conway,et al.  Distribution, fluxes and biological utilization of inorganic nitrogen during a spring bloom in the New York Bight , 1979 .

[38]  J. J. Macisaac.  Diel cycles of inorganic nitrogen uptake in a natural phytoplankton population dominated by Gonyaulax polyedra 1 , 1978 .

[39]  R. Margalef.  Life-forms of phytoplankton as survival alternatives in an unstable environment , 1978 .

[40]  L. Atkinson,et al.  SOURCES OF NEW NITROGEN FOR THE SOUTH ATLANTIC BIGHT , 1976 .

[41]  K. L. Webb,et al.  THE SIGNIFICANCE OF UREA FOR PHYTOPLANKTON NUTRITION IN THE YORK RIVER, VIRGINIA , 1976 .

[42]  R. Burris.  Nitrogen Fixation by Blue-green Algae of the Lizard Island Area of the Great Barrier Reef , 1976 .

[43]  Y. Sorokin.  2. – MICROBIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE PRODUCTIVITY OF CORAL REEFS , 1973 .

[44]  Virtanen Ai.  Nitrogen assimilation and protein synthesis , 1950 .