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Science 29 November 1991:
Vol. 254. no. 5036, pp. 1356 - 1358
DOI: 10.1126/science.254.5036.1356
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Articles

Major Role of the Cyanobacterium Trichodesmium in Nutrient Cycling in the North Atlantic Ocean

EDWARD J. CARPENTER 1 and KRISTEN ROMANS 2

1 Marine Sciences Research Center, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794-5000
2 SEA Education Association, Woods Hole, MA 02543

The diazotrophic cyanobacterium Trichodesmium is a large (about 0.5 by 3 millimeters) phytoplankter that is common in tropical open-ocean waters. Measurements of abundance, plus a review of earlier observations, indicate that it, rather than the picophytoplankton, is the most important primary producer (about 165 milligrams of carbon per square meter per day) in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean. Furthermore, nitrogen fixation by Trichodesmium introduces the largest fraction of new nitrogen to the euphotic zone, approximately 30 milligrams of nitrogen per square meter per day, a value exceeding the estimated flux of nitrate across the thermocline. Inclusion of this organism, plus the abundant diazotrophic endosymbiont Richelia intracellularis that is present in some large diatoms, in biogeochemical studies of carbon and nitrogen may help explain the disparity between various methods of measuring productivity in the oligotrophic ocean. Carbon and nitrogen fixation by these large phytoplankters also introduces a new paradigm in the biogeochemistry of these elements in the sea.

Submitted on June 28, 1991
Accepted on September 19, 1991


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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Phosphate Depletion in the Western North Atlantic Ocean.
J. Wu, W. Sunda, E. A. Boyle, and D. M. Karl (2000)
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Whole-Cell Immunolocalization of Nitrogenase in Marine Diazotrophic Cyanobacteria, Trichodesmium spp..
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Microaggregations of Oceanic Plankton Observed by Towed Video Microscopy.
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)