| | Geotimes - March 2007 - Nitrogen cycle in oceans surprises researchers |
 | | To get a better sense of where most nitrogen fixation was occurring, Deutsch and his colleagues decided that rather than considering where the nitrogen-fixing bacteria might prefer to live, they would look instead for evidence of their activity — specifically, the ratio of nitrogen to phosphorus in the waters. |
 | | A link between denitrification and nitrogen fixation “makes eminent sense,” and suggests that the ocean nitrogen cycle may be in balance after all, if much more nitrogen fixation is occurring in large parts of the Pacific than had been thought, says Douglas Capone, a biological oceanographer at the University of Southern California. |
 | | The discovery is just one of several that have shaken up the nitrogen world in recent years, including the discovery of an abundance of ancient nitrogen-fixing organisms called Archaea in oceans, and the discovery of a brand-new biological pathway for nitrogen removal, he says. |
| www.geotimes.org /current/article.html?id=nn_nitrogen.html (743 words) |